The Agent Who Has Done Real Estate in Three Markets and Keeps Starting Over Successfully

Matt Brady sat down with Ramon Patrick of EXP Realty and the Signature Group for a Behind the Closing Table conversation that covers commercial real estate, residential sales, the Charlotte market, and what it actually takes to rebuild a real estate career when you move to a new city and have to start from scratch again.

Ramon came out of college into commercial real estate, starting with a firm that was eventually acquired by Cushman and Wakefield. He stepped away from real estate for a period to work in corporate and missed it almost immediately. He went back, this time to JLL handling Starbucks transactions across the Florida panhandle. Then moved to Compass in Chicago focusing on both residential and commercial. Then a friend mentioned the Carolinas and the stars aligned. He now holds licenses in two states and operates in Illinois and North Carolina simultaneously.

He joined the Signature Group in Charlotte just two weeks before this conversation was recorded. He could already tell you what homes were sitting for in the Still Creek area and what price range was producing the most activity. That is the investor and analyst mindset that commercial real estate builds and it does not go away when you shift to residential.

Commercial Versus Residential: The Expectation Gap That Newer Agents Miss

Ramon's most direct observation about agents who want to get into commercial is about timing. Commercial deals take significantly longer to come together. Cold calling is still the primary prospecting method. The contracts are different, the language is different, and the negotiations cover things that residential agents never encounter. You are not just negotiating price and terms. You are negotiating who maintains the HVAC system. You are navigating exclusivity clauses that prevent a Starbucks from locating near a Circle K because they consider each other competitors for coffee customers. You are working through five, ten, and twenty-year leases with escalation clauses and tenant improvement allowances and build-out negotiations.

His advice for anyone who wants to move from residential into commercial is to find a mentor first. You cannot plug and play into commercial. If you are not comfortable being on the phone constantly and putting yourself in front of people relentlessly commercial will not work for you. But if you can build those relationships and learn the specific language and deal structure the paychecks are bigger and the work is genuinely interesting.

What It Takes to Restart in a New Market

Ramon has restarted his real estate career more than once and he is clear-eyed about what that requires. Any good agent can be successful in any market. The question is whether they are willing to put in the grind that starting over demands. You do not have a reputation yet. You do not have a database. You do not have the name recognition that carries meetings in your favor.

The fastest path he found was joining a team. Not because it is the only way but because the Signature Group name walks into a meeting before he does and that buys credibility while he builds his own. He has never worked on a team outside of commercial and he was not sure how he would feel about it. He likes it. The access to transaction experience, the coaching through deal nuances, and the faster path to market knowledge have all been meaningful in a way he did not fully anticipate.

The Charlotte Market Right Now

Ramon's read on Charlotte is specific and nuanced. It is not uniformly anything. Different parts of Charlotte are behaving differently. Some areas are still more seller-friendly. Others have clearly shifted toward buyers. The Still Creek market at the four hundred to four hundred twenty-five price range was sitting sixty-five to ninety-two days when this conversation was recorded. And the Charlotte story of one hundred and twenty people a day moving into the area did not match what Ramon saw when he arrived because the new construction market is absorbing a significant portion of that demand. Understanding what you are competing against as a resale listing means understanding where those in-bound buyers are actually going.

First-Time Buyers and the Inspection Report Conversation

The pattern Ramon sees most consistently with first-time buyers is the same one that comes up on nearly every Behind the Closing Table episode. The inspection report arrives and it is forty to fifty pages long and everything on it feels catastrophic when you have never been through the process before.

His approach is to sit down and go through it line by line, distinguishing between what is a genuine concern and what is a recommendation that a home inspector is professionally required to document regardless of severity. A worn surface, an aging component, a minor deficiency that has been present for years and caused no problems. These are not the same as structural issues or safety concerns and the buyer needs someone to make that distinction clearly and patiently while holding their hand through the emotional response.

He is also dealing with first-time sellers right now who have expectations built from their COVID-era buying experience. They entered the market when everything was flying off shelves at above-ask prices. They are now trying to sell in a market where their neighborhood has one-hundred-day average days on market. The data conversation with those sellers requires showing them exactly where the comparable sales landed and how long comparable properties sat before bringing them around to a realistic pricing strategy.

What Makes an Offer Strong Beyond Price

Ramon's view on offer strength is straightforward and grounded in his commercial background where deal terms often matter as much as headline price. The highest number is not automatically the best offer. The question is whether the buyer behind it is actually ready to close.

His practice when a strong offer comes in is to call the loan officer directly. Not to verify the pre-approval letter but to understand exactly where in the qualification process the buyer actually sits. Have all documents been submitted? Has underwriting reviewed the file? Is this genuinely close to a done deal or is this a pre-qualification letter printed off a website? He had a seller early in his career accept what looked like the best offer only to have it fall apart because the financing was not actually in place. He does not let that happen twice.

He raised the same point that runs through Matt's work on the mortgage side. A ten thousand dollar difference in purchase price changes a monthly payment by roughly sixty-five dollars. Ten thousand dollars that stays in the buyer's pocket is genuinely ten thousand dollars of optionality and liquidity. Structure the offer around what actually benefits the buyer most rather than optimizing only for the headline price.

The Most Overlooked Part of Negotiation

Closing date. Ramon puts it near the top of his list and the reason is practical. Buyers and agents often write in thirty days as a default without looking at what that actual calendar date is. That date might be a holiday. It might fall on a Friday afternoon. Ramon has closed too many Friday deals that produced unnecessary stress for everyone involved. He now communicates clearly about timing strategy from the moment an offer is being structured. End of month closings reduce prepaid interest and lower the cash required at closing. Mid-week closings give everyone access to their professional support network if something comes up at the last minute.

What Sellers Should Ask When Interviewing Agents

His single most important question for sellers to ask any agent they are interviewing is why should we choose you. Not what will you list it for. Not what your commission is. Why you specifically and what are you going to do that distinguishes your effort from the agent who will post it on the MLS and wait.

The danger Ramon identifies is agents who promise the highest list price specifically to win the listing. He lost a listing in Greenville to an agent who told the seller four forty when the realistic price was four fifteen. That property is now sitting at four twenty-four and declining. Buyers see price reductions as signals that something is wrong and the stigma of a price-reduced listing can ultimately cost the seller more than the honest conversation would have.

Numbers do not lie. That is his operating principle and he brings it into every listing conversation whether the sellers like what the numbers say or not.

What Buyers Should Ask When Interviewing Agents

How responsive are you? That is the question Ramon recommends and his answer is demonstrated by his own behavior. He was on the phone with a first-time buyer at eleven-thirty the night before this recording because the buyer was approaching contract and was anxious. That is not something Ramon advertises. It is just how he operates. Buyers need to find out how an agent actually works before they commit to working with them rather than discovering their communication habits after an offer is already submitted.

The Biggest Misconception About Being a Real Estate Agent

Agents make too much money. Ramon says it with a laugh but he means it as a genuine frustration. The visible moment is the commission check. What is not visible is the hundred days a listing agent spent paying for marketing on a property that finally sold. The fifty homes shown to a buyer who ultimately did not purchase. The eleven-thirty phone calls. The deals that fell apart after months of work. The professional judgment, market knowledge, negotiation skill, and sheer availability that the profession requires. It is not easy money by any accurate measure.

How to Reach Ramon Patrick

Email [email protected] or find him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at the handle Ramon Sells RE. He is available for buyer and seller representation in the Carolinas and Illinois and is open to conversations with residential agents who want to explore getting into commercial real estate.

Matt Brady is the Carolina Mortgage Coach. For mortgage guidance on your next home purchase or refinance in the Carolinas reach out to Matt Brady directly.

Sources

NationalAssociationofRealtors.org
MortgageNewsDaily.com
CharlotteRegionalRealtorsAssociation.com
ConsumerFinancialProtectionBureau.gov
Investopedia.com