Living through transition with Nicole Yunker part 2

Brad Seaman: [00:00:00] So you guys are building these houses. What happened? How many houses do you buy and flip? You got a good flow. I know flipping houses and real. Estate’s really hot right now. So,

Nicole Yunker: [00:00:08] well, what we do and I thought one question Brad might ask me, cause I feel like there’s always these, what books do you read? I hate reading.

I actually don’t read books, but what I did is I listened to podcasts and at the bigger pockets podcast is what I love. That’s a real estate, one it’s investing, but they have a term called house hacking where you live in the house and you do the work while you live in it, and then you resell it or you rent it out to like buddies.

You know, if you know, you’re single and you can rent rooms or whatever, let them pay your mortgage. So we would house, heck I don’t even think we knew her house hacking, but we would just buy a house that needed some help and we would live in it. And I mean, it was not uncommon to have. You know, we’re down to studs or paint on your hands when you’re headed into the office.

Cause that was kind of like a hobby, third income, personal interest. Um, w I don’t, it evolved, like, I don’t think we knew we were like gonna be doing this, but then we sold the first one. I made a great profit on it and it was like, oh, okay, well, let’s just keep doing that. So, um, by this time I’d been home and a third baby had come.

And then we moved into another house in upper Arlington and another one that needed some work, um, kind of just went to town, designing and figuring out what are we doing with this? And I mean, we didn’t anticipate a lot of changes that came from there, but they did. So went through some personal trouble with the marriage and did some work on the marriage, got counseling and, and got more invested with some friends through church.

Just went through some Rocky there, and then we had the opportunity to move to New Jersey with his work. So we ended up moving out there and got another fixer upper in New Jersey.

Brad Seaman: [00:01:52] So Rosso. So pump the brakes there. You’re you’re you’re Midwestern girl. You supposed to be spent your whole entire life in the Midwest.

I got a couple of clients from Jersey from the east coast. I know it’s different. So what’s what, what, what, tell me about your expense. How about,

Nicole Yunker: [00:02:08] I love New Jersey. Awesome.

Brad Seaman: [00:02:10] What’d you like about it? What’d you

Nicole Yunker: [00:02:12] love about it? Well, first of all, in college, I had gone to France for a semester and then I had actually lived in Boston for a semester.

And then my brother went to west point on the east coast. So we’d spend time out there. And, um, I had this whole finish about going to New York in college. Like I always just wanted to go east. I that’s my place. Like if I thought of a place I identify with in a region it’s new. So is it

Brad Seaman: [00:02:34] the, is it the, like the downtown busy?

Yeah. Okay.

Nicole Yunker: [00:02:39] Like, what’s the plan. We’re doing it now. I love the Brooklyn Italian vibe and, uh, we were about 15 minutes from the coast and I also on a personal note, we’ll have to garden. So it’s called the garden state. Come on. No joke. I had a great garden going on there and I just really liked the people they’re very, um, accommodating and warm, but direct.

And right now, So I get all that.

Brad Seaman: [00:03:07] So you were, so you were loving it. Did you, uh, now are you living downtown? Are you living in a suburb?

Nicole Yunker: [00:03:12] We lived in a suburb called freehold, which was about not shy of an hour south of New York city and about 15 minutes from the shore. So it was not the armpit of America.

It was like horse farms and guard any like

Brad Seaman: [00:03:28] it’s pretty rural. It’s pretty rural. It’s not, it’s not Jersey shore, so

Nicole Yunker: [00:03:35] it’s not all Jersey city. Yeah. So, no, it was great. I love New Jersey. I think I still wasn’t working there. So the whole time in New Jersey, I wasn’t working, I was home with kids. And again, like we already talked about to me, that is like, okay, now I’m doing like these mom’s groups I’m doing, I’m very plugged in and active and socials.

Um, then when we moved to New Jersey, thought about maybe one more baby, you know, that always been a good, a good time in our marriage. And you know what, maybe, maybe one more. So I got pregnant and we’d go to the doctor. And I was told there’s a baby in there and sent home with a photo, go back a couple weeks later, they want to do another ultrasound.

I’m like, why do they want to do that? They just wanna make a buck. Like, what’s the plan. We don’t need another ultrasound. Oh my gosh. Okay, fine. I’ll do it your way. She does the ultrasound. I look over at the monitor and it’s just silent. Have they talked to you? I’m like, no, I think it’s going to be some bad news here.

And I look over and I just see two big black holes and I’m like, oh my God, that is not, there’s two babies in there. So they missed it the first time. And then the next time I went in there, by the way, this is twins. So now I’m pregnant with twins and I’ve got three babies who are literally four. Three and two, and I’m pregnant with twins and I’ve got no family out there.

None of that’s happening. So I said, okay, this is a plot twist. Well, I do hard things. You can’t make yourself have twins. If you want them, they just have to happen. No matter what happens. So this must be the plan. Okay. I can’t refute it. I’m going to have twins. My goal now is to not have the twins early to make it full term.

Brad Seaman: [00:05:23] No. Is that common for twins to go?

Nicole Yunker: [00:05:26] Oh yeah. Okay. So my goal was just like, no NICU. Just get them home. Just, just me come home with the babies that day. And again, this whole mom thing is just, you kind of just have to die to yourself. Literally. Right now, my goal is to bring twins home and that’s, that’s my whole goal.

So I went through that pregnancy and it was fine. There was no horror story, but at the end, it’s, it is hard to have two huge children in your stomach and do regular things. But, so that’s what happened. Had the twins there. We love the house. Did lots of work on the house, floors, walls, and trim. Redesigned the kitchen wall down new doors.

I mean, we, we got to the house and redid that. So that’s always a fun outlet too. And then the twins had just had their second birthday in New Jersey. Got bad news about them marriage. So now it is, we’re kind of back to some of the struggles we’d been through in Ohio. So now it’s time to make a decision here.

We have a turning point. What is the point? This is not panning out the way I thought it was going to go. I have five babies, literally. I mean, one’s in kindergarten. No one else has even in school yet. So I am literally at home with five kids at my feet on the floor, cleaning up food under a high chair, three times a day.

I’m in New Jersey and I’m like, okay, what’s going on? What are we going to do? I’m going to need support. I’m going to need help. I can’t, I can’t be out here managing this house alone. What would I do? The only thing that would make sense would be to move near my family. When my sister had moved to Carmel and they had moved out from,

Brad Seaman: [00:07:15] is she, was she in Ohio as well?

Was she not in Indiana?

Nicole Yunker: [00:07:20] My twin sister had moved up with her family for 10 years cause her husband’s an army. So they had no like Fort Bragg and, um, And then I have another brother who had gone to west point and deployed a bunch. So he was doing that. And then my, my fourth brother was, um, he’s younger. He was doing pharmacy well, and he was still in India.

Don’t go in through school. So my parents had four great kids, real close family, and everybody was doing their own thing. I’d had five kids away. My sister had three kids away and my brother was like overseas. Um, and this is probably not the way my parents thought their life was going to go. But Danielle and Brett had moved back, thought, you know what?

We have to live by family. So they ended up moving back and chose caramel randomly because good schools, good life. 18 months later, I have all this news happening in my personal life. So I’m like, you know what? I got to, um, I’m going to have to move to Carmel. So I said, you know what? We are going to, we’re going to move by mom’s family.

And we are going to set up shop. So I put the kids in the car and I put the roof carrier on and one of my best friends, one of my girlfriends that I had made, made the drive with me and we moved to my sister’s basement and set up shop with the kids. And school started 13 days later and I said, well, you guys are starting at a new school.

It’s going to be wonderful. And so now all the cousins sit in class together at cherry tree and have the same teachers. It’s wonderful. My parents moved up, they live across in the neighborhood across from where I live. My brother moved to Carmel and my other brother just had their second baby and he’s in, he goes to M I U medical school.

So, so did

Brad Seaman: [00:08:57] you dust off the, when you decide, okay. We, you know, I’ve got to move back to Indianapolis. Hey kids, we’re going to get in the car. Um, you have a turning point, you decide you’re going to make a change. Are you at that point? Are you, what’s the process of getting the real estate license and you already, no.

Nicole Yunker: [00:09:15] At that point, I ended up living with my sister in the basement for five months and looking for a house and crying my eyes out and figuring out what am I doing next? How is this working? This is not the way I saw my life going. I don’t have a plan, my whole plan that I had for my life. Isn’t that plan anymore.

So what I did is I got a counselor and I went to some pretty good counseling for you. And I just kind of dealt with all the feelings I was going through. I dealt through the change, the grief of what you like, what you thought your life was going to be. You have to grieve what you thought, what you thought it was going to be like.

You have to grieve how it is and you have to grieve your loss of what it was. So I just kind of, honestly, I was, I had the fortune of taking that year and just kind of dealing with the reality and sitting in the reality, which is really hard to do, but I just felt the feelings. I really was kind of in the muck and I didn’t try to run away and I didn’t fill it up with anything else.

I kinda just like, felt those feelings. So throughout that process and going through like the counseling and thinking and just kind of being in that moment, I just it’s a lot of who am I, it’s a lot of getting back to who I was maybe before kids too. Well, who am I? What am I good at? What could I do? Who am I now?

Now I have a new reality. Okay. This is your life. You’ve got five kids. You didn’t have that before. So what can you do with five kids? You’re probably not traveling to Peru for a week. You’re probably not going out to business dinners at night. And you know, I don’t have the flexibility or freedom at this time, but what can I do?

So I told the real estate agent, I can only be in my sister’s house. Has to be the same one. So now I’ve got a good support system. My kids can get off the bus at her house or my house. My parents have moved in across the neighborhood. Great. My neighborhood is wonderful and connected to the elementary school.

So my kids are set up for success there, which I am so thankful for, but didn’t necessarily plan, but somebody planned it for me and it worked out life happened well for me in that sense. So I told the agent just, I want a house that needs some help. I don’t need it to be broken, but I’d love something cosmetically that, that I need to update about it.

So that’s a whole nother story. I’m going to get into it. Perfect timing. I find this home. Became friends with the old homeowner. And I brought a contractor in here and I said, I need a house that works on day one. I need the, I need the kitchen to look like summer camp. I need cubbies for six kids. I know what I need.

I need that to be here. And I was able to, um, come in this house and do the floors, the wall. Design paint. I mean, just make it set up for my life. And I got that creative outlet and I was also going through all those counseling I talked about and I was just like, you know, who am I, what am I good at? What do I like?

Is this a me thing? Is this a him thing? Is this a wee thing? Or is this something I like? And I would get a lot of positive feedback from friends I was having over. And I don’t know. I mean, this is what I love. Oh my gosh. Like some of those things that I had put on the back burner, like the real estate and all that, I think it’s time.

I think it’s time. Okay. The twins are now three.

Brad Seaman: [00:12:25] So prior to that, you’re not working. Right. You’re just coming in. You’re

Nicole Yunker: [00:12:28] just a, that first year, I was just regular non wife here and just, I transplanted my life and just did the same thing. I knew how to do. And frankly, I mean, the babies were too, so I mean, we were going through and I was just provided stability for my kids at a huge time of transition in there.

Yeah. So again, I just said, you know, it’s not my time. My time right now is to transition them correctly. I don’t know what is next for me, but right now this is what I need to do. Um, which is kind of not easy to kind of like, just not do anything and know that you can’t do anything and don’t know what it is, but you know, it’s not that, so you just can’t do it.

So it was honestly a hard year between. Just not knowing what was next and not knowing how I was headed there and kind of going through all the feelings from the divorce. But don’t, we grow stronger in those times. Like, it’s crazy. When you look back and you realize how much you grow, like someone at north, we actually stopped me.

She’s become a friend, but she said you’re in the valley and the grass is greenest and most lush in the back. You can’t see out of the valley, but when you get to the mountain, you’ll look back and be so thankful for your time. The value will be well fed. You’ll remember how green it was down there and you’ll have the view, but you’ll know where you came from.

And I thought I am in the valley right now. I am going to eat green grass. It’s sucks. And it doesn’t feel good, but I know that she’s right. So I that’s my point. I really. I tried to really grow and learn in myself.

Brad Seaman: [00:13:57] And so, you know, so part of this is like when I’m a part of the podcast, one of the reasons why I think adversity is something that we like to shy away from.

But when you look back on this, on the adversity, if you were to get out of mat, if you get out a piece of paper and kind of draw a timeline, um, I think adversity is the thing that causes you to be. Uh, the most real, like really understand yourself and are really moments that you should cherish, whether they’re, uh, I know for me, you know, some of the most adverse times are probably some of the most spiritual highs that I’ve had.

Um, but also were times that have made me, uh, that I, that I just, I just enjoy the struggle. Like I enjoy having those, those moments. Um, do you feel that same way? Yeah.

Nicole Yunker: [00:14:42] I mean, get your sample for them. We’re supposed to rejoice in those times and you know, you can’t, and you know, you shouldn’t, but like you also have been through a couple of things where, you know, now’s the time.

And so it doesn’t make it less painful or sad or hard to be in those times, but you kind of know, like, it’s kinda like when you’re really hungry at the lobby of the restaurant and you’re kind of just like freaking going off. When everybody around you, like. You get that first bite of food? I feeling so good.

How was your guys’ day? You need to keep it together when you’re hungry, because you’re going to look back and wish that you did things different. So I think I just knew that at the time, like now’s the time I know it’s, it’s hard, but now it’s the time to really like suck it in because you know, when you’re not where you want to be yet.

Or things aren’t working out like you want them to, I mean, you have a couple of choices to make. You can sit there and cry and have a pity party, or you can grow, learn, do those trainings. You should. That that’s when you’re busy, you can’t do. I mean, now you, you, you need to keep your head in the game.

Brad Seaman: [00:16:03] One, you said that you try to anticipate the questions I was going to ask you. So what did you think I was going to ask you? You hit the reading one, so no, no reading, but podcasts, but I want to ask you is listening to a podcast and reading a book. Do you consider that to be different or the same? Yeah, I can sort of do the same too.

I mean, you see naturally curious. Not

Nicole Yunker: [00:16:26] same, same. I mean, what’s your reality? Do you have time to sit by a fire and read a book? Because I don’t, but I’m at the kitchen sink a lot and I can have a podcast. And so I think just that’s my reality. Yeah. I love

Brad Seaman: [00:16:38] no, but think about what, um, what podcasts you listened to you got, you said bigger, you said you’re heavy on the bigger pie.

I love

Nicole Yunker: [00:16:46] bigger pockets, and then I’m not going to lie. This is just a guilty pleasure, but I love the bachelor and there’s one called the bachelor party and these girls just chit chat. And I just love, I feel like I’m in a coffee shop with them. So that’s my fun one. I just do. Sometimes it’s

Brad Seaman: [00:17:03] really funny.

There was a, there was a gal that was, that I had, uh, was, so I had hired a gal. This is Brian. So this is a batch of the gal that will end up on the bachelorette. So I hired a gal and then I got in a car accident the next day. And so getting in the car accident, put me out, uh, um, commission. So it sort of foiled her, uh, it, I say it set her on the path to be on the bachelorette, but, uh, or on the bachelor, like she was on the bachelor, but I was flipping through the channels one day and I’m like, holy crap.

I know that person. Um, so early was Kristen Whidbey. So it was kind of funny. I was like, I’m just like sitting there. My wife knew who she was too. Cause she had met her. And so it was. It was funny to see or, you know, it was interesting to see. So the bachelor. Alright, I got, I got it. What other questions did you think I was going to ask you that I, is there anything that you thought I was going to ask you that I didn’t

Nicole Yunker: [00:17:54] not really.

I mean, you told me the topic was adversity, so I was just thinking you would probably mindset through adversity, I guess.

Brad Seaman: [00:18:02] Yeah. No. Well, there are so many good. Um, there are so many good takeaways. She did a, you did a great job. And, uh, you covered so many great talk topics. You’re really good. I know you laughed when I said you’re a good storyteller, but you’re, you’re a great storyteller.

You had me on my, on my seat a couple of times, I was trying to figure out where you were going to go. Um, and, uh, so many good takeaways. So, um, is there anything your, uh, anything you wish I’d asked that.

Nicole Yunker: [00:18:29] No, not really. I mean, just to cap it out of the story though, I mean, I got my real estate license and then I thought, what am I doing?

And I sat and I had coffees for a year. I just sat with people and said, um, you know, what was your life? Or what’s your day? Like, what do you do? I smell it was lenders I met with and I still, this is part of my, um, my, my routine. I will have probably three to seven coffees a week and just talk my way through Hamilton county.

I like, I really value. So like, I don’t really read, I just talk, I don’t really do podcasts. Sometimes I just talk, like, I really liked stuff like this and just personally connecting with people. I think that fills me up a lot. And I think I get a lot of my ideas about business in life just by like talking with them.

Brad Seaman: [00:19:15] Yeah. It’s amazing what you can find out by just being, being a

Nicole Yunker: [00:19:18] good listener. So, yeah. So then I met. The guy I work with now, Alan Williams. And I said, you know, if I’m, if I’m going to sell real estate, I’m going to be a, I’m only wanting to work with a hard hitter. So I pretty much just interviewed top agents.

And I said, I know myself, if I sign up, I’m going to do it. So I thought about the realities, you know, there’s a lot of naysayers. How are you going to show houses? How are you going to do things? And you know, how, how, how can you do that with your home life?

Brad Seaman: [00:19:49] Like, who’s telling you, you can’t do this.

Nicole Yunker: [00:19:52] It’s just, I think with real estate, that’s the number one people think, oh my gosh, like aren’t you always working on weekends?

Aren’t you always working nights. Don’t you just have to go and like be in an appointment and like 10 minutes, no. 90% of your work is planned. 90% of your appointments are work or on your phone or a planned appointments on your phone or. Or just work that you’re doing busy work, actually, you don’t realize how much they do.

The only thing that you can’t control are some showings with buyers and that’s kind of it, everything else has a lead time and you have an appointment written down in your calendar for it. So I just quit listening to that. And I said, no, I can do it. I have a great support system. Um, and I set up my, I set up my support system in a way that.

And I, it hasn’t affected my business at all.

Brad Seaman: [00:20:41] So really key. I, I, we lived in North Carolina for a while, had a couple kids. I had four kids out in North Carolina, not all out there, but we really overestimated or underestimated the importance of family and having a good support system. So I think that’s so great that you acknowledge and maybe that was out of necessity.

Um, the, the decided that you had to do that, but I think that’s super simple. Uh, is, is having, having kids, having family around, uh, being conscious of trying to, uh, you know, before you move, uh, thinking about how that’s going to impact all the kind of intricacies of your kids and who they interact with, because when you’re in another state and you don’t have, I mean, you just take it for granted, like, Hey, you’re going to grab, go to the store.

And you need somebody to take care of the kids while you go grab milk. I mean, it’s hard to do that. Um, we lived in North Carolina, there was like monopoly on babysitters. There was some crazy math that they would do. And I felt like every babysitting trip was 250 bucks. I mean, I’m like really, we’re just trying to go to the store for like 15 minutes.

Y’all gonna charge me $250. So I agree with that, sir. That’s a, that’s awesome.

Nicole Yunker: [00:21:47] My kids’ ages now, like, so basically last year the twins were four still home. And I really started that as my transition ramp up year. So I started working last year and then they go to kindergarten in the fall. So all of this has been a role into like me really hitting the ground running with like absolute full time, but you can’t control it and it’s been going really well.

So

Brad Seaman: [00:22:10] that’s awesome. What was the biggest, so you’re in selling. Can you remember the first deal, the first real estate deal you sold?

Nicole Yunker: [00:22:17] Yeah. Yeah, it was great. I was so thankful and I was like, this is really happening. And I think real estate is one of those industries where a lot of people just try something to not be doing what they’re doing.

Oh, I don’t want, I just want to try something. I think I could do that. That seems like easy and cool. But for me it was like, this is something I’ve been waiting to do. And I just couldn’t wait to, I was finally getting to do what I wanted to do.

Brad Seaman: [00:22:43] That’s that’s no, that’s, that’s a good insight. And you’re you’re right.

Uh, real estates. This thing that people are, they’re doing one thing and they’re like, oh, I could do, I could get my real estate license. I could try that. I can do that. Well, that PR so, so I, you know, I don’t know where you’re at on your leaderboard, but I’m guessing, based on our conversation, you’re probably one of the top in the office.

Um, do you think some of that comes from having, uh, just a, I mean, you seem like you just have a plan and you grab everything by them.

Nicole Yunker: [00:23:11] Um, I think you, yeah. I mean, maybe that’s like. It’s kind of a cross between, I have like always have a strategy and I always just actually like people, I actually just really love talking with people and being around people and helping people and caring for people.

And I actually mean that, but then I also love the business side. So for me, real estate has been the perfect mix of, I actually cannot believe I’m helping you at such a special time in your life where you’re transacting your home. And then you get to turn around and do straight up negotiation with the agents and then you’re have a lender network you’re working with.

So you’re working that business. It’s just been the perfect mix of personal and business. And, uh, I think you actually have to care about your clients to succeed in this, in this industry.

Brad Seaman: [00:24:01] That’s awesome. What sounds like you found yourself in a really good and a really good spot. And, um, do you, I guess a couple of questions I have for you, how long does the real estate market stay in house?

What’s the, what’s the forecast

Nicole Yunker: [00:24:14] right now. It’s like, I think people want to liken it to like, there’s going to be a big fall out. But right now the buyers that we have are all qualified, people are sitting with, with lending situations that are very available or cash. So we have a lot of qualified buyers that are just not finding homes.

So I think it’s going to continue. Yeah, I don’t see an end in sight. It might slow down a little bit just with time of year seasonal weather, you know, kids getting back to school, that kind of thing. But as far as inventory, we still have no inventory. So that’s not gonna, that’s not gonna change for awhile.

Brad Seaman: [00:24:47] Well, this was, this was great. I really, you know, thanks for coming on. This was awesome. Like I said, there are a lot of really good takeaways. This was a great interview.