Real Estate Excellence Podcast

Real Estate Excellence Podcast Top-ranked real estate podcast hosted by Tracy Hayes — featuring in-depth interviews with elite agents, coaches & industry leaders. New episodes weekly!

Available on all major podcast platforms. Based in Jacksonville, FL. (904) 814-9907

09/18/2026

Get in young. Pay your mortgage. Ten years later, you’re a wealthy adult.

That’s how Bailey Martin, founder of STA Sunrise Realty, talks about her favorite part of the job: first-time homebuyers.

“I just love helping people get into the game, because I think it’s so important — especially for young people. You get in there young and you start paying your mortgage, and you just start building equity for 10 years, and that’s how you become a wealthy adult.”

Right now she’s working with a couple of first-timers who needed more support than they expected — most young buyers don’t know anything about the process going in. One client, a new college grad and school teacher, qualified for Hometown Heroes, got the seller to cover closing costs, and bought a townhome in Bridgewater with no money out of pocket.

That’s the path most people don’t know exists.

Bailey Martin | St Augustine • St Johns • Jax Realtor — if you’re a first-time buyer wondering where to even start, this is your sign. 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

StJohnsCounty StAugustineRealEstate NEFloridaRealEstate BuildingEquity HomeBuyingTips HometownHeroes Bridgewater FloridaRealtor RealEstateTips TopAgentsFlorida

09/18/2026

Most real estate agents are trained by trial and error — on your house.

🔗 tracyhayespodcast.com/341

Kati Spaniak has closed nearly 700 transactions and personally hand-vetted over 6,000 agents through her company, Truth in Real Estate®. In this clip, she’s blunt about why the industry has such a low barrier to entry — and why that’s exactly how sellers end up with an agent who’s still learning on their dime.

“Every single transaction, every single contract I write, every single deal I’m in, I learn something new.”

It’s part of why she built Protect The Seller® — a free, ten-promise written commitment so agents can prove they’re putting the seller first before they ever sign a listing agreement.

Tag an agent who needs to hear this Kati Spaniak - Truth in Real Estate ® 👇 Have you ever worked with an agent who was clearly still learning on your dime?

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

ProtectTheSeller KatiSpaniak RealEstateAgent RealEstateTips HomeSellerTips RealEstateIndustry RealtorLife RealEstateEducation SellersAgent RealEstate Realtor

She swapped financial markets for 1920s bungalows — and it’s not the career pivot you’d expect.Today we’re in the studio...
09/17/2026

She swapped financial markets for 1920s bungalows — and it’s not the career pivot you’d expect.

Today we’re in the studio recording with Aubrey Wessolowski of The Gilman Group at BHHS Florida Network Realty. Economics degree. Fintech background. Now she’s the agent Avondale, San Marco, Riverside, and Murray Hill sellers call when a historic home needs a buyer who actually understands the numbers behind the deal.

She runs the business alongside her mom — a two-person team in a market where most buyers assume bigger means better.

Her specialty: the houses with character. Knob-and-tube wiring, cast iron plumbing, insurance headaches most agents don’t see coming until it’s too late.

Full episode drops soon. For now — would a finance background make you trust an agent more with the biggest purchase of your life? Drop your take below 👇

Tag [Aubrey Sabala’s IG handle] — go give her a follow.

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

NEFloridaRealEstate AvondaleJax SanMarcoJax HistoricHomes HistoricJacksonville RealEstateTips FirstTimeHomeBuyer RealEstateAgent RealEstate Realtor

09/17/2026

Buyers walk away from homes they love over less than a car payment. Here’s the math nobody’s doing.

🔗 tracyhayespodcast.com/339

Marilyn Gilman calls it the shoe test. People will drop $1,000 on something they don’t even remember in six months — but stall a deal on a house they’re in love with over that same $1,000.

Her fix: reframe it. When a negotiation stalled $20,000 apart, she broke it down to $150 a month and asked the buyer straight — “Is it worth that to lose the house you really love?” They bridged the gap. They bought the house.

She does the same thing with sellers. Not “what’s the number” — “what’s your actual goal?” Because a fish on the line isn’t worth losing over a couple thousand dollars.

Marilyn Gilman — have you ever talked a client off the ledge in a negotiation like this? Drop your version below 👇

09/15/2026

She had a 4% rate. Eight years in the same home. A payment most people would never walk away from.

Bailey Martin, founder of STA Sunrise Realty, moved anyway.

She and her family left their World Golf Village home for Anastasia Island — trading a low rate for the life they actually wanted to live.

“Are we going to stay in this home forever because it’s cheap, or are we going to go live our life and be where we want to be? Life is short. You only get one chance at this, and I want to be happy on a daily basis.”

Her advice for anyone frozen by their rate: if keeping money in the bank is the priority, stay put. If living life to the fullest is the priority — make the leap.

She calls it one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

Bailey Martin | St Augustine • St Johns • Jax Realtor — would you give up your rate for the life you actually want? 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

StAugustineFlorida StJohnsCounty MortgageRates RateLock NEFloridaRealEstate RealEstateLifestyle FloridaRealtor RealEstateTips TopAgentsFlorida RealEstateMindset

Flagging for your producer: this clip jump-cuts straight from your question to "We really“just looked at our life” — it skips the part where she names the 4% rate and eight years in the WGV home. Caption above supplies that missing context, but if you want the clip itself to carry the full weight, it may need a re-cut.

09/14/2026

Early on, Holly Frandsen thought real estate was a competition. Every other agent felt like an opponent.

Then her mother-in-law showed her a different way. “She always was really collaborative with prior clients,” Holly says. “She’s like, ‘Oh, I know that listing agent — let me call and see where they’re at.’” Not adversarial. Not territorial. Just picking up the phone.

“You realize there’s enough houses for everybody out here.”

That mindset shift changes how you negotiate, how other agents want to work with you, and how many deals actually get to the closing table instead of falling apart over ego.

(And yes — she also got told to slow down. Some of us just talk fast when we’re passionate about this business.)

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The Frandsen Team — competition or collaboration? What’s worked for you 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

StJohnsCounty ClayCountyFL NortheastFlorida FirstCoastRealEstate RealEstateMindset RealEstateNegotiation RealEstateTips Realtor RealEstateAdvice

09/13/2026

A house isn’t worth what the appraisal says. It’s worth what someone’s actually willing to pay for it.

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That’s the line Marilyn Gilman keeps coming back to — there’s a science part to pricing a home, and then there’s the art part: the buyer who just wants to live there, no matter what the data says.

And the job itself? Not exactly predictable. She’s literally signed closing documents sitting on the floor of a lawyer’s office, laptop plugged in wherever she could find an outlet. Her words: “It’s kind of the Wild Wild West out there sometimes.”

Real estate looks clean from the outside. It rarely is on the inside.

Marilyn Gilman — what’s the wildest closing moment you’ve ever had? Drop it below 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

NEFloridaRealEstate 904Realtor HomeAppraisal RealEstateStories RealEstateAdvice TopAgentsFlorida RealEstateLife ClosingDay Realtor RealEstateHumor

09/12/2026

If you bought a home in 2023, you might not be able to sell it right now without writing a check at closing.

That’s the reality Bailey Martin, founder of STA Sunrise Realty, is seeing over and over in St. Augustine. Sellers who bought at the end of 2022 through 2025 are calling her to list — and when she runs the numbers, most of them are losing money.

The competition isn’t just the market. It’s the builder down the street, still selling brand-new inventory in the same neighborhood.

Her response when a seller sees the CMA: “I can’t even believe this. We can’t afford to sell.” So they stay. A few more years, a little more equity, until the builder finally moves out of the area.

Her rule for anyone buying new construction: plan on being there five-plus years, because trying to resell against the builder too soon will cost you.

Bailey Martin | St Augustine • St Johns • Jax Realtor — have you had this conversation with a seller? Drop it below 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

StJohnsCounty NEFloridaRealEstate FloridaRealtor NewConstructionFlorida HomeSellingTips RealEstateAdvice SellersMarket FloridaHomeSellers RealEstateTips TopAgentsFlorida

Most sellers have no idea if their agent is actually protecting them — until it’s too late.🔗 tracyhayespodcast.com/341 —...
09/11/2026

Most sellers have no idea if their agent is actually protecting them — until it’s too late.

🔗 tracyhayespodcast.com/341 — live September 16th

In the studio today with Kati Spaniak, founder of Truth in Real Estate® — the national movement making agents put their promises in writing instead of just talking about them.

Through Protect The Seller®, agents sign ten specific commitments: tell the truth, put the client’s profit before their own paycheck, never buy a listing with a price they know is too high. Reviewed by a real person. Renewed every year. Revocable if broken.

Through her TruthCertified™ referral network, Kati has personally connected sellers with nearly $2 billion in vetted, trustworthy agents nationwide — completely free to the homeowner.

🌐 katispaniak.com
✅ protecttheseller.com
📺 YouTube: Sell Your Home With Kati - Truth in Real Estate®
📸 Kati Spaniak - Truth in Real Estate ®
📘 facebook.com/katispaniak
💼 linkedin.com/in/katispaniak

Tag Kati Spaniak - Truth in Real Estate ® — would you sign these ten promises?

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

TruthCertified KatiSpaniak RealEstateExcellence StAugustineRealEstate NEFloridaRealEstate SellYourHome RealEstateAgent HomeSellerTips Realtor RealEstate

09/10/2026

Some listings need more than a good photo and a prayer.

This one needed a little TLC first — nothing major, but enough that Holly Frandsen wasn’t sure how fast it would move. “Pricing is everything in this market,” she says. Get that right, and everything else has a shot at working.

Once the price was dialed in, she didn’t sit back and wait. Instagram, Facebook, video, mailers — all pushed out at once, all at the same time. Not staggered over weeks. Immediate and consistent.

The result: buyers who’d already seen the house on her website suddenly got a mailer too. Multiple touchpoints landing close together — and the listing moved faster than she expected.

Price gets it looked at. Consistent marketing across every channel is what actually gets it sold.

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The Frandsen Team — what’s your go-to marketing push the moment a new listing goes live? Drop it below 👇

👉 Follow Tracy Hayes for weekly tips from top agents.

StJohnsCounty ClayCountyFL NortheastFlorida FirstCoastRealEstate RealEstateMarketing ListingStrategy PricingStrategy RealEstateTips Realtor HomeSellingTips

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