The Neighborhood Realtor

Secrets of a Small Town Realtor & Influencer — Bethany Nolan, TX

August 23, 2022 Matt Muscat
The Neighborhood Realtor
Secrets of a Small Town Realtor & Influencer — Bethany Nolan, TX
Show Notes Transcript

Bethany Nolan is a Real Estate Agent based in Longview Texas—she’s one of NAR’s 30 under 30 Realtors, an Instagram sensation, and a brokerage owner. Above all else, she’s a community-first Realtor. 

Bethany has been in real estate for 5 years, and has already garnered an amazing level of success in the industry. A smash hit! In 2021, Bethany did 54 transactions, with a total value of $14.2 million. A majority of her work comes in the form of small town & rural deals, bringing her average deal size well under the Texas state average, making her production results extra impressive. 

Her boutique brokerage is named Nolan Properties, LLC., a small, but powerful brokerage, with offices in several Texas locations and a fantastic team of agents. Bethany’s brokerage was a pandemic project for her, and it allowed her to niche down on what she really wanted to do in the real estate industry—cultivate relationships and build her community. Their motto is “We Sell Texas”. It might be a large shoe (boot, rather) to fill, but Nolan Properties fills and exceeds the expectations in their ambitious motto.

In a place like small—town Texas, the lower average deal price is both a blessing and a curse. Bethany believes it is a great asset to her business, as it allows her and her business to serve more clients. The math is simple: after a decade of helping double the clients, your database will be massive, and your name will be known. 

Community is one of the main drivers for Bethany. She believes there is “no excuse” for not being active in a community, especially as a real estate agent. It’s not for the business—it’s for you. Bethany is proud to be an enthusiastic member of multiple local organizations, including the Rotary Club and the local softball Junior League. It helps her keep tabs on her market, her clients, and the community at large, which helps her serve better! She doesn’t show up to events and gatherings with a name tag or tell everyone she’s a realtor. Instead, she builds friendships. The rest is history. 

The string that pulls everything together is social media. Bethany has garnished over 30,000 followers on Instagram alone in the last year, harnessing the power of reels and short-form videos. Her approach is simple: educate! Every time a client asks a question, she writes it down and makes a video about it. Whether she meets a client at a softball game or gets introduced via phone call, her Instagram and Facebook pages keep her database engaged and interested in her work. As a bonus, her content reduces client questions and increases trust, all while making it easy to find her anywhere you look. 

All in all, Bethany is a community-first Realtor, a non-stop content creator, and an amazing business owner. 
 

Marketing in Other Markets is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

 

Matt Muscat

Hey, everybody, welcome to the show this week. I am unbelievably excited to be sitting here in my office while she's in her office in Texas with one of Na's 30 under 30 realtors. So welcome to the show, Bethany Nolan in Longview in the General East Texas area.

 

Bethany Nolan

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

 

Matt Muscat

Well, first and foremost, I'm pumped because we have similar background. So you did your undergrad and master's in the communications world, and that is exactly the path that I took to get into real estate also. And I'm just super pumped that it's led you to the success it has. But we kind of ended up taking different paths, even though it was the same degree.

 

Matt Muscat

So tell me, how did you walk me through? You told me that you got you got promoted and fired in the same day. And that spurred real estate and everything you you've kind of built for yourself today. So let's let's talk about that story.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah, of course. So I went straight into college, Texas A&M undergrad, Texas Tech Master, both in communications with journalism media focus and went straight into working for a global PR firm and it was a great experience, but it was like a bittersweet one. I worked crazy, crazy hours all the time, seven and 7 p.m., and then when it came time for promotions, I got it.

 

Bethany Nolan

But they also wanted to cut my pay a little bit from over time with more work. So I tried to negotiate and was told that was an impossibility. So when I was promoted globally the same day I was fired. But it's okay. It led me where I am today. I packed all my star, took my real estate courses in three days, which I don't think you can do that anymore.

 

Bethany Nolan

I think they have time limits now.

 

Matt Muscat

It's so hard to be a realtor now. It probably takes five days.

 

Bethany Nolan

It probably does. But I did it quick and I moved home and got the ball rolling in August of 2017. So been selling ever since then full time.

 

Matt Muscat

So I know recently you had kind of an update. You you and your family started your own brokerage. What is it? What does that look like now?

 

Bethany Nolan

I so we started Nolan Properties LLC in August of 2020 and it's more of a boutique family style brokerage. Our motto is We sell Texas. And so we're we have offices in Longview, Gilmer and Austin, where my sister sells as well, and a couple of agents under us, too. But it's been, you know, right the beginning of the pandemic time, we decided to, you know, just roll in while real estate was hot and have our own brokerage.

 

Bethany Nolan

And I'm grateful we did because it's really neat being able to represent your own brand in your own name. It has a little bit of a different pride to it and excitement.

 

Matt Muscat

Absolutely. And, you know, one of the other things that you you mentioned me was that the price points are different all around the country. And your price point specifically is you did a lot of transactions. So I know we've had guests on here who did $50 million in sales, but maybe that was like three or four, three or four deals.

 

Matt Muscat

What was your what was your walk through, what your production was and how many units that ended for 2021?

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah. So in 2021, my production was about 14.2 million, but that was 54 transactions. You know, most people, what most newer agents sell is about 150 to $200000 homes. But the average in my area is about 350 to 400. And anything about 450 and up is considered luxury in my area. I'm in rural America, so a lot of your homes are going to be priced to 52, 350, and that's where most people are going to sit.

 

Bethany Nolan

So you've got to sell a lot of homes to have a high sales transaction compared to the more metropolitan areas as well.

 

Matt Muscat

And I think, you know, one thing I always talk about with agents and with salespeople in general, I guess, in any industry, is that you talk to people in there, they just want to be jealous, right. It would be easy for you to be an agent in a small town in Texas and to say it's not fair that, you know, other agents in Austin or in Dallas or Houston are able to sell like five houses for a couple million apiece to be done.

 

Matt Muscat

Like I have to work my butt off. But really, there's a secret advantage to having smaller price points and being able to work with more clients. And that's the fact that ten years from now, your database is going to be 50 times the size of some of these agents who were doing one or two deals all year. They might be doing great, single, commission wise, etc., but you have such a rich database in the in the six, seven years that you've had your career, that you're I mean, your database is three times the size of most people.

 

Matt Muscat

I mean, how has that helps helped your business? And are you starting to reap the rewards of, you know, the long term referral game that.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah, I know what you're saying makes so much sense because I love this aspect of real estate. My love, real estate is I can do relationship building and I love my community so I get to be more hands on with more people. I don't think I would enjoy just working with five people throughout the year, so it is more what I would call my jam to kind of do.

 

Bethany Nolan

But yeah, building that database. I've finally seen the return on that in the past year with my referral base. So I get past clients that have either owned their home for three or four years and are ready to sell, or they have friends or neighbors or families or new colleagues that are coming in where I'm seeing that return where they're like, Hey, call Bethany.

 

Bethany Nolan

And so you get the bigger database. Then the more people come in that are going to work for you out.

 

Matt Muscat

I love that. And I know that you're not just like doing a transaction and wham, bam, thank you. I'm hearing from them. Five years later, you are probably one of the most active people in your community and on social media that I've seen, and I know that kind of all ties together. So like, walk us through kind of what you're doing in the community and then how you're capturing that, putting that on social.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm super mold my community, but one note I will make is my family's been in our county for I'm seventh generation, so we've been here a minute. But that doesn't mean that I'm super ingrained. I had to, when I moved back home, re put myself into the community. So I got involved when I was in a sorority in college, they said, You have to be involved, a minimum of two other organizations.

 

Bethany Nolan

And I used that role of them until everyone else. They should do that too. I'm on the executive board. I'm in Junior League of Longview, which, if you're a woman in larger cities generally is a fantastic way to meet like minded individuals. I'm in the Rotary Club. There's so many civic organizations and foundations that you can get involved in to where I meet people naturally, and I get involved and I'm just there to volunteer and lend a helping hand.

 

Bethany Nolan

And honestly be in the know about my community. Because as a real estate agent, you need to know what's going on, what developments are coming in or what's happening.

 

Matt Muscat

And that's like that's what that's like. We have to pause there and tell every single person out there, you need to join two groups like this is it's not it's not expensive. It's it's a couple of hours a month of your time but you get to broaden your network made it hugely diverse for people and especially if there are organizations that are to keep you informed on what's coming up in your area.

 

Matt Muscat

I mean, it's it's an absolute plus. You might actually have some fun.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah. And it's, you know, I don't have the advantage. I don't have children. So people that do have children join your PTA with your parent teacher association, get involved in T-ball leagues or soccer leagues. That's a freeway that you're already paying for kids to be a part of it. And if you don't have kids like me, go join your local groups like I have an alumni group from my college in the area.

 

Bethany Nolan

That's a way for people to get to know me as well. So there's no excuse to be able to find a minimum of two places you can always do it. There are young professional organizations, everything but look outside of your realtor association because that's your not your competition. They're your colleagues, in my opinion. But look elsewhere.

 

Matt Muscat

Yeah, it's that's kind of like you should already be doing a lot of that stuff because you need you need to know people so they accept your offers, etc. But in order to get business, you need to find some other groups in the community. And I always tell people like, think about your interests, like what are you into and what are you going to enjoy doing?

 

Matt Muscat

Because if you join something and it's not tied to anything you love, you're going to stop going. You're not going to be as engaged. You're not going to say. But when you when you do something in your eyes lighting up and you're super excited, other people can tell them they're attracted to you. And I can tell that you have a spark about the groups that are absolutely.

 

Bethany Nolan

I love them and I just love its people I would have never met otherwise and I'm from here. So that says something about just joining different groups.

 

Matt Muscat

So I can kind of imagine how this would go. You know, we're in some type of group together. I like you. You're a nice person, but you're not a salesperson, so you're not like, you know, I don't see a realtor pin on your on your top today. I don't see like I want to buy a house. So they don't even need to necessarily discover your realtor from you shouting at them.

 

Matt Muscat

How, how is this kind of coming full circle into them liking you and thinking you're a nice person, that's a good volunteer to them, say, hey, I'm on a list, my $350,000 home with you.

 

Bethany Nolan

Absolutely. Yeah. So you're never going to catch me with a name tag? I don't like them. They're not my thing. If you like, I'm cool. But I just feel that when I walk in a room to volunteer with a different organization or a group, I'm there for that group as me as Bethany. No one. I am not. There's Bethany.

 

Bethany Nolan

No on realtor. I don't want to be branded. I don't want to be any of that because I just want to be a relatable human in that experience. If we talk about real estate, so be it. But I'm not forcing the conversation and I think it's really important for people to realize that in the gen-z world, people get the ick when you walk in sometimes.

 

Bethany Nolan

So there's a art of informality that you can have when you go in. Because if I leave a room and you don't know I'm in real estate, that's my fault. My name tags not going to tell you that. My name tags just probably going to annoy you. So I really like to go in and just be there for that organization and be me.

 

Bethany Nolan

And people are going to choose a realtor based on the person that they are and if they like, working and being around them. So I think it's really important for people to realize that, yes, if you're going in the community, it's okay if you have a hat on, but be there as yourself and don't be there branding yourself.

 

Matt Muscat

Yeah, you know, be open, you know. Also, don't be on your phone the whole time because if you if we have an honest conversation and I just start asking you questions, I know that if you're a normal human, you're going to ask me some questions. And one of those questions usually is about family or to me about what do you do for a living?

 

Matt Muscat

Like what? What do you got going on later? There's so many ways to talk about real estate and what you do once you've been asked specifically without you having to word vomit all over someone like oh, like in a desperate way. Like I really am a realtor and I'm really looking for buyers and sellers right now. Like, okay, yeah, I got it.

 

Matt Muscat

Walk away from me. I'm not I'm not interested in being sold by you right now. I'm here to volunteer, so be subtle about it, but also, like, have conversations. You have to put yourself in the situation where people want to ask you. And for me, that's by asking other people about themselves.

 

Bethany Nolan

Absolutely. I agree with that 100%. You just need to be as informal and casual as possible. That's more the name of the game than it used to be, you know, ten years ago. Yes. Where your name tag be branded. But now people can find out who you are from you when it comes naturally.

 

Matt Muscat

What? Also, I know you have another secret weapon. Where on the off chance that real estate didn't come up in that conversation when they go to like hit you up on Instagram or Facebook or a myriad of other places, they're going to see some serious real estate education. So like you've built a huge following on Instagram. That's part of why I wanted to have you on the podcast.

 

Matt Muscat

What walk me through like where that started, where it is now and what it's kind of led to in your business.

 

Bethany Nolan

Absolutely. So I'm on all channels. I'm you can find me at Bethany Nolan, realtor on all of them, which I think is a key term to keep it all very simple to find. But I really wanted to focus on education. You know, when I started my page, I didn't start my Instagram or Facebook page until a year end of real estate.

 

Bethany Nolan

I just didn't want to be the girl that only posted sold. I thought it was a little braggadocious at first, but then I learned No one knows you're selling anything unless you tell them. So I found a more natural way to show myself and showcase what I was doing in real estate to where I put in storytelling and education, which I think are two huge key components on all of my social media fronts.

 

Bethany Nolan

I use each channel for different purposes. I'm, you know, my Facebook. It is more storytelling when I do a sold or when I do a listing, I am more telling you about the process. My experience with these buyers, they moved from out of state. It was a difficult process. We had two contracts fall through that type of story because people were late or they were first time homebuyers.

 

Bethany Nolan

Instagram It's more education with videos. I really focus on reels, which I've only been doing about a year, but I give educational tips on saving for buying a home. What is a lender look for? What should you be looking as red flags in a home? And then I even go deeper in my content on, you know, what exactly do you need to know?

 

Bethany Nolan

Because I can only put so much in a video. So I really like the educational aspect. I come from all my mom's side, a family of educators, so I understand the importance of it and making sure people understand their process. I tell people I love their trust, that I love their blind trust. So I want you to, at the end of the process, to feel like you knew what went down during the homebuying process.

 

Matt Muscat

Well, it's another way to reduce stress. It reduces questions. It reduces people calling you at 10:00 and asking you all the details because they chose to work with you because they've already been educated by you. I think that's huge. Now, I know one thing, like to give everyone like a really tangible tip that they can take to the bank.

 

Matt Muscat

You know, coming from a PR background, all of your Instagram reels, all of that, all the posts have really detailed and long captions that's clearly working for you. Can you kind of tell people like how you do it, the why, what, what types of things they might put in their captions? I'm just a little bit more information on that.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah. So not everybody listens with sound. I personally don't. And so I don't feel like I'm grasping it with the sound or I can only be listicles Instagram reels now. They can be about 3 minutes. I think maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe 90 seconds, but they're not very long, so I can't get a lot of information and I want people to be able to grab their little snippets and key takeaways.

 

Bethany Nolan

And so I don't think that's enough information for people to take home. So I'm always putting in my captions, you know, say I just did one recently over what is a lender looking for when they're getting your pre-approval together. And I put, you know, your credit history, your employment history, and then I go down into the caption and it's long and you have to read it.

 

Bethany Nolan

But I'm surprised how many people do. And it says, here's why they need to know your credit history. Are you paying on time? Will you be a good borrower? And I dove deeper and that really helps people understand the reasoning.

 

Matt Muscat

I love that. What I you mentioned listicles lists like is it 3 to 5 or like when you're posting the lists, I know that's one of your highest converting types of posts or real stories to get leads. What are some that have really worked for you? Well, in the last year?

 

Bethany Nolan

So regarding listicles, it doesn't matter the amount a number. Honestly, for me it's finding ones that allow enough or with the rhythm of the trend, but it's really ones that there is the key, key takeaways. So I just did six ways you can save for a home and it was easy. It was, you know, get a side hustle, cut down on utilities, change subscriptions, you know, all the things that some of us are like, well, duh, Bethany, not everyone knows this stuff.

 

Bethany Nolan

And I have made a rule of thumb that when I make these rules, which is a good tip for people, if I've had one client ask it, then another one's going to ask and I always make a note in my phone. So that's how I get a lot of my real content. And then I also pay attention to blogs and utilize those as inspiration too.

 

Bethany Nolan

But I'm just anything that's easy, easy takeaways.

 

Matt Muscat

I love that. It's one of those things we've been saying for probably two years in the podcast. The number one reason people don't come up with content is because they don't know what to say. But every single thing your client says to you during the course of the transaction, that is something that everyone else wants to know also.

 

Matt Muscat

So to simply record that was you, to simply record that in your phone, in a list, in an Excel sheet on your phone. Other people want to know what that could be. A post on Instagram stories, that could be a video, that could be all kinds of stuff. But you just got to start somewhere. I mean, that you're doing.

 

Matt Muscat

Yeah.

 

Bethany Nolan

You can utilize a lot of different ways. I sat in a closing the other day and my clients asked three separate questions and I just like kept putting them down in my phone on my side because I was like, Wait, that's a fantastic question. I need to answer that in a real in to showcase I'll have people that I'm in junior league with be like, Hey, it was when you know, how do you file for a homestead?

 

Bethany Nolan

She's like, Hey, can you do one over that? I don't know what I'm doing. And I was like, Oh my goodness, if you're asking too. Other people are so just take those notes and then when you run out, it's there.

 

Matt Muscat

I love that. So are you on Facebook? You have done a really good job with some targeted Facebook advertising. What his work best for you because I know like Facebook changes the rules constantly and different markets are different but what's really been working for you in the last in the last year.

 

Bethany Nolan

Yeah so you know Facebook you do have special requirements that you do have to notify you are in real estate and that this is part of housing. So any type of paid post or advertising that has to have that box checked or it will get red flagged or come down. So that's number one. If you're ever submitting ads, make sure that you mark that I've done page like an advertisement.

 

Bethany Nolan

So one thing I will notice, I never really pay for my followers. I want it to be organic and I want you to like me. So my Instagram is 100% organic. My Facebook, I do paid out likes and I boost my posts. So on those with my listings, I try to get people within that vicinity of that property.

 

Bethany Nolan

So at least in the town or within a mile and then people in the surrounding areas. But when it comes to page likes, you can go in there and really dove deep and put, you know, people that do not like my page, people that are within this age group, people that like real estate and interior design or land sells.

 

Bethany Nolan

There are those categories in there that you can choose from in. I go in and check it every three weeks and see how is it interacting, how do I need to adjust it? I think it's really important if you're going to focus on social media to understand analytics and understand how they can benefit you. You know, Instagram does a fantastic job on telling me when I get the most activity in the mornings and evenings and what days.

 

Bethany Nolan

And that's when I post my reals. So good at Facebook. So I think the resources are there. You just need to know how to use them as an agent to help better your reach.

 

Matt Muscat

I think tracking is such a huge bedrock of real estate, but most people don't like I mean, a lot of agents don't track their leads. They don't track the referrals they're giving, they don't track the referrals they're getting. But the analytics on marketing, why would you spend money on something or your time, which is even more valuable if you don't know what it's leading to and it's social media, it's all there.

 

Matt Muscat

Kind of crazy if you're not taking advantage of it.

 

Bethany Nolan

Well, absolutely.

 

Matt Muscat

Even to see like which videos, which reels are doing well and which ones aren't tells you what to do more of next time. And sometimes if I do a really good one that works, I'll do a very similar one the next day to kind of build on the momentum is huge. So many opportunities. I know one other thing you mentioned and I don't want to free you from the podcast to go sell some houses today.

 

Matt Muscat

But you mentioned not getting lost in branding and just doing you what what does that mean for you? Because obviously, I talked to so many agents and salespeople and their first month in real estate, they want a logo and they want to do a big old brand. And I'm like, is that really the best way to spend day one?

 

Matt Muscat

And opinions are mixed on, so what is what does all that mean for you?

 

Bethany Nolan

And, you know, everything I say is what works for me. So you do you in my opinion. But I so I am my brand. Nolan Properties is my family brokerage, our colors, grain. A lot of what I'm going to do was in green, if it makes sense. But I have a very colorful personality. I'm very expressive and I love cute dresses and fun outfits.

 

Bethany Nolan

And so I kind of just let that be a part of me. I'm not out here trying to ensure that everything I post has green on it. I'm not out here trying to make sure every time I wear a hat it says no on properties. I am just trying to authentically be me and myself. And if people want to follow along and be a part of my real estate journey, then great.

 

Bethany Nolan

I want people to want to follow me, not for my brand, but for me because they're choosing to be part of Bethany's journey.

 

Matt Muscat

All that and really like we're all on some type of journey. And if we can attach themselves to other people that are going in the same direction, it should be fun, right? Like it shouldn't be where you're just being authentically you every day and it translates well and that's kind of how you got to where you are today.

 

Matt Muscat

So, Bethany, I just want to say a huge thank you for being on the show today and sharing some of your wisdom. And hopefully a lot of people out there can do a deal with you soon. So if someone wanted to get in contact with you to either buy or sell some real estate in Texas or or just pick your brain, where would they find you?

 

Bethany Nolan

Absolutely. Yeah. First of all, thank you for having me on here. This is such a great upset and I'm excited and honored. But you can find me anywhere at Bethany. No one realtor, all across all channels. I'll make it easy for you. So all of my contact information DM me with questions. I have people DM me all the time asking for advice and tips and tricks, so I'm here to help.

 

Matt Muscat

I love that. By the way, what she said is also a great point. If you're a realtor, make sure it's easy to be found on the Internet. You don't need to be a secret agent. You just need to be able to be found. So we've got the underscores. Right. So with that, Bethany, thanks again and I will talk to you soon.

 

Bethany Nolan

Thank you.