Ep 1. “Out of your comfort zone.”

Alya Sunza is excited to start her podcast about becoming a realtor. She shares that she and her sister, who also has a full-time job and four kids, are planning to start their own brokerage in a few years. Alya talks about her motivation for becoming a realtor and how important it is to have a successful mother to inspire her kids. She also mentions the emotional journey of being a realtor and how she enjoys helping people through the process of buying or selling a home. Her sister, Dani, is considering a career change from her demanding job as a director of nursing and is interested in becoming a realtor. Hello, hello, hello! My name is Alya Sunza and I am so happy to be here right now, so happy to be starting this right now. The energy that I'm feeling in my body is overwhelming, electric, excited, nervous, happy, like curious, just all the things. So I thank you, I thank you so much, wherever you're at, if you're just checking this out for a second or the fact that you even clicked this is just making my heart explode and thank you so much. This is the beginning of a podcast, episode one, attempt number one, so as you will see through this podcast, the, what do you call it, the audio, I'll learn the term, the audio is going to, you know, progressively get a lot better. Right now we're just in my room to give you guys a nice visual, yeah, this podcast is going to be about how to become a realtor, what it's like to be a real estate agent and what steps you can take if you want to really become an agent. My sister, she is 33 years old, has a full time job, but was curious what it would be like to try to be a realtor because I am, I've been a realtor for almost, well for four years now. I'm entering my fifth year, so statistically they say your fifth year is like your best year. I had a pretty good year last year and I'm excited for my statistically best year for 2025. My sister just took class, the classes because she was on maternity leave, which is such a great, such great timing because ironically I left work back in 2020 during COVID and I was able to, I was pregnant as well and I was able to take the class. So basically, long story short, I was pregnant with my third kid when I took this class and my sister is, was, I'm sorry, actually no, she had her baby and then she took the class because she was on maternity leave. So basically, we're both mothers, she has four kids now, I have four kids now and we, she also has a full time job. We like to be busy, let's just say that. We're both very work smarter not harder type and we enjoy, we enjoy keeping our plates full. I have a mother, my whole life, that loves to dream and a father that loves to work. So we have both of those, put them together and what do you get, right? Well, you get us, we're their only children, so we only have each other and over the years, man, let me tell you, it has been a up, down, up, down relationship. She had kids before me, we never really saw eye to eye until about, I don't know, five years ago when I had like a one year old. We started to really bond and her first children were boys and my first child was a boy. So they were able to bond and we were able to connect through that and as much as we fought as children, my mom would always pressure us to, you know, be friends and told us we would be friends when we get older and so, yeah, she was right. We are super, super close now and I'm like extremely excited to begin this journey with her. We have super big plans to start our own brokerage here in the next, you know, maybe four years. We need my sister to actually first get her license. She has to pay, I believe it's the $150 to receive it and then she is going to join the brokerage I'm at currently, it's called Inspire Realty Group out of downtown Elgin. We're excited to have her, we're excited to, you know, show her the ropes. I will be bringing her on listing appointments, showings, inspections, you name it. She's going to get that beautiful, beautiful best way to learn hands-on experience through me. So, yeah, we're really excited to have her, like I said, at our brokerage. She literally has to do this license fee payment and she thought what better time to do it than on this podcast. So, today we will be, yeah, we'll be doing it for her. I think it's really important for me anyways to have someone explain a friend or, you know, whether it's a YouTube video or Google search, the steps of becoming a realtor because I've met many people in my life, you know, in the last few years be extremely interested and intrigued in the job but just doesn't know what to do or how to do it. So, that's a huge motivation and a huge reason why I wanted to start this podcast so we can have my sister in here showing you guys the nitty-gritty, the emotions, the fear, the unknown and the confidence that starts from nothing and grows tremendously through experience. And you could take that through any experience in life, any type of career or hobby or something you want to like get good at. It all starts with a dream, I guess. It all starts with, I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen but I want to do it. That's exactly kind of where I was when I started. They asked me why, what's your why and of course, you know, I had kids so my why was them. Did I really understand what any of that meant? No. I, you know, that was kind of just like the most generic answer and I know it wasn't for, you know, I didn't want to get like a Rolls Royce, you know, that wasn't my why. I know I've spoke to extremely successful realtors who would have, you know, a speech, actually not a speech, yeah, a speech. They would give a class at my old brokerage and explain, you know, how they became a realtor and why and it was always so interesting to hear everyone's why. And yeah, there was an agent that just said she really, she wanted a really nice car and that's why. Basically money, you know, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's hilarious. That's cool. I mean, that's a cool why. It definitely, I've never been one to like want super nice things because I destroy them. I'm a destructive person. I am like, if I'm in my car now, I have, I have a Honda Odyssey because I have kids. But I actually ended up hitting my neighbor's car because my brain is so scattered all the time. I have like a little, you know, scratch thing on the back of my van and my mirror, my left mirror, I've hit a few times on my garage door because of bringing my daughter to preschool in a hurry or being late to a sporting event. I've actually, you know what, I like to think this is normal, but it maybe isn't. So my garage door, I like push it to like open it and I go to back out. I actually hit that a few times because I'm just like impatient. So this just circles back, brings me back to the why of having a nice car that I don't think will ever be my why because it's just too much pressure for me to have nice things. My why was my kids. Now I have three daughters. At the time I was giving birth to my third when I started. But yeah, obviously I have one son, like I said, and three daughters. I think it's so important to have a successful mother, whether that be a stay at home mom or, you know, a mother that works, whatever the case may be. I think showing your child that you're happy doing what you're doing and that you are good at what you do. I think that will let your kids, will show your kids that they can do it too. There you go. I was trying to figure out a cool way to say that, but that's basically the gist. So yeah, that was my why for my kids to make them proud of me. And then along the way I realized how incredibly proud of myself this job makes me. It's given me like, oh geez, so many moments where I'm like scared and I turn to people in my life. My family and my dad actually is a huge one. I turn to people in my life and I'm scared and I'm vulnerable and I do it anyways because I know I can. And to give yourself those moments as an adult with four kids I think is extremely important. Like I said, whether that be as a stay-at-home mom or somebody that works, those are just the kind of the two things that I can give an example of as a mother. I just think being proud of yourself as an adult is wonderful. And yeah, I can't wait to have my sister on to show you guys. And that you guys can do this too, that a job that gives you a lot of time, a lot of flexibility and a lot of self-reflection is awesome and that's what this job has done for me. I realized how emotional people get through this journey and I've always enjoyed sitting with people that are open to sharing their emotions and helping them see what's possible and continue to be positive throughout the real estate transactions, whether it's buying or selling. I'm happy to be the person that sits with them and gets through it. So yeah. Hey! I'm Dani, Allie's sister, she already introduced me to this. I feel like I'm talking to the world but I'm also just talking to her and the computer. But I definitely want to introduce myself. My sister got into this several years ago and I was just discussing how I kind of want to get out of my 9-to-5. My 9-to-5 is definitely not a 9-to-5. I am a director of nursing at a memory care for assisted living and I am on call 24-7, which as anyone could imagine, having four children and attending to everybody else's needs on my team is quite a lot to handle at times. My on-call obviously isn't just a quick thing, sometimes I can have a call-in for a nurse and have to work a 12-hour shift in four hours and that consists of any shift, so it can be difficult. Thankfully, I do love what I do. I love being there for the residents, making a change in their lives. The elderly is my calling, dementia is definitely my calling. And everybody on my team, I can't say how much I appreciate them and everything they do as well. I just feel very blessed to have such good people in my life, for sure. But I don't see me doing that forever. I think, and Allie can definitely attest to this, that I talked a lot about how easy it seems to do real estate and or become a realtor over and over again. And so on a whim, well, Allie kept sending me the classes and it would say like, oh, you could start Monday and she'd send it to me on a Thursday and give me just pure anxiety. Doing anything within a four-day radius seems like a lot to me and my personality. So I ended up signing up for classes in the beginning of December. It was a two-week course. I believe it was like eight hours a day, Monday through Thursday for two weeks. That seemed easy in itself. It was all through Zoom, so I was able to be home. It was definitely not easy. Being on maternity leave, I had my toddler, my four-year-old, and then I had the newborn who was breastfeeding every two hours. It was just a lot. I wasn't able to pay attention fully. And then afterwards, you have about another four hours of homework that you have to do. So it took a lot of commitment. Thankfully, me, my sister, my family, our personalities are, you know, very much I started this, I'm going to finish it. That definitely keeps us all going. I had Allie, of course, with the experience and all of the happiness to go with it. And then my dad also pushing me to do that and, you know, just helping me in regards to, he is in construction and he has his own business and things to sell and properties to move. And I don't even know how to talk real estate yet. So a lot of encouragement, a lot of help with my immediate family, which is great. Back to saying how easy I thought it was going to be, it was difficult and it took a lot of commitment, a lot of time, which, you know, it sucks while you're doing it and you learn a lot and you may not learn a lot and then you move on. And, you know, I had to, I take everything in very tiny, tiny, tiny steps. So once I completed the class, I took about, I would say a month to actually sign up to take the test. I studied a lot because I had a lot going on at the time. Right when I finished classes, it was back to work, the holidays, and then I had family in town. I host the holidays, so it's a lot. And then I went back to work on January 7th and then immediately, if anyone knows anything about the world of nursing homes in general, assisted living is similar, but I had my annual state exam coming at the end of January, so I was prepping mentally and physically and everything else for that. And I signed up to take the test two days before state was actually entering my building, so I was just stressed. I passed the state portion the first time. I did not pass the national the first time. I then immediately signed up to take it again the second week of February or something, but it was, if I don't sign up for it, I know that I'm going to keep procrastinating and not doing it. So I signed up for it, I studied as much as I could. Everybody's different. Personally, all I did to study was I retook the exams and the quizzes that were offered through school, and I took those over and over again until I actually understood what they were talking about. I looked at the quizzes and the books that were given to me or provided to me through school. Being on maternity leave, I didn't want to or couldn't spend all the money on the paid quizzes. I do hear that that is a great option and it helps a lot of people. Kind of like my nursing, I just, I got to do it and see what it's like, and then I'll do it again if I have to. In this case, I did, and I passed it the second time. They do, after you pass your, or actually, after you fail a test, either whichever portion of the test or if you fail the whole thing, they give you a, kind of like a report card, and they tell you exactly what, how many questions you missed in which subject. So that was very helpful. The second time around, I really focused on those specific topics and studied just those. I definitely could say that during the exam, there were, there's a lot of words, a lot of words that I was not familiar with and couldn't kind of figure out what they were talking about. So my second time around, that verbiage was something that I studied more on. My sister came over unwillingly. I mean, I, there's no invite. There's nothing like that. She just pops in and says, this is what we're doing today, which is honestly very helpful, which she knows it. So then we go from there, but yeah, she came over. We wrote a bunch of flashcards, which then as soon as she left, she doesn't know, but they got lost. My four-year-old put them in an envelope and called them money and then lost the envelope. I found them, I found them to study for my second time around, probably the day before. But honestly, just writing this stuff down, I did go through the flashcards three times with Allie before she left that day, so that was helpful in itself. You know, I don't know how everyone studies flashcards are the way to go. I will cling on to something, which Allie was helpful for, saying random things that had to do with the card, and so then I was able to remember more. So then I focused on that, and I went and retook it, and I ended up passing, and then after that, they send you an email, and also, I don't look too far in the future, so I never really know what the next steps are until they happen, which again, is my personality. It helps me control the amount of anxiety that I'm willing to take on. So like I said, signing up for the test a couple days later, I mentally knew that I had stayed in the building that week for three or four days. It ended up being four. I then left myself, I took it on a Saturday, so I left myself Thursday and Friday at work and in between work on my lunches, you know, doing the flashcards as much as I could, and then all night also. I have a 14-year-old who goes to practice, so my husband took him to practice, and then I asked my 11-year-old to help with the four-year-old, and I studied while everyone was trying to be entertained. While breastfeeding the baby. And everybody else talking, and mommy-mommies, and all of that. It's definitely possible. It's just, like I said, I think the big key to my world is not putting too much on my plate at once and taking those tiny steps. I also live my life through sticky notes, so I do. I do a week at a time to try to arrange and organize the things that I have to do in life, in my life, in my job, and everything else. I'm trying to think of what else. Oh, so I passed the test. I called my family. It was a hurrah, hurrah. They all wanted to hang out and celebrate, and I said no. I just wanted a mental break for about a week. It was like MIA. Even at work, I'm there, but I'm not there. It's hard. It's just hard. But we did it. I did it, and it's amazing. I'm very proud of myself. I'm very thankful for everyone who helped me through the process. I have been telling more people what I did. I don't like to tell people until I actually have it. Even now, I've been kind of leaking out that I've done all of this so far, where I'm at in the process. I still need my license, so that's what we're doing in a little bit. But even explaining to my world and my little circle, what did you call it? Sphere. My sphere of people. Everybody in the world needs a house, kind of like nursing. I do compare it to nursing a lot. I don't know if my sister understands some of the things when I explain it, but it helps me understand where I'm going. After I took my test, passed it, told my family, I set up a meeting with the managing broker, sponsoring broker? Yeah. One of those people. Sponsoring broker is in Spyro. It's a group of managing brokers. Yes, so I met with him, and I don't know how much Ali prepped him, but he made me feel very comfortable and allowed me to ask all and any questions I had, which is everything I need. I don't like to look it up. I just need someone to tell me what we're doing from here. That is definitely something we have in common, me and you, and the more you talk about this, the more I'm like, ooh, that's something we have in common. Ooh, that's something we have in common because we're really, really different, but at the same time, yeah, it's exciting that we have these things. Yeah, and I think he, maybe even him talking to you has helped him understand my questions and my fears and things like that. I am a lot more standoffish than my sister. I'm a lot more quiet. Not quiet. I wouldn't say quiet, but I've been talking to her about my fear of getting my name out there in the social media and even this podcast and things like that. It's just not my norm. It's not my comfort zone. It's a lot. We're doing it. I did tell her if I don't do it, I won't know, and I'll just be afraid of it, but here we are. Here we are. So, I met with Chris. He answered all my questions and then told me once I purchase my license that I have to hang it somewhere. Honestly, that's what they say. I don't even know what that means. I don't know if it hangs on the wall. I don't know, but it doesn't. It doesn't hang on the wall. Why do they say that? Maybe some places. It's just the way they say it. I mean, they just have it there. You hang your license there. That's like where you're, like, represented. Yeah, it hangs out. Yeah, I was looking for the license when I was there. I'm like, where do they go? I thought they were on the wall. So, he agreed and just told me to reach back out when that happens. So, that's really nice. He did explain, you know, you get access to the MLS. So, Allie described that you have the fee, the $150 fee for the license itself, and then there's more. There's the something that you have to pay for to get access to the MLS. Oh, okay. So, yeah, you have to be a part of a, oh, my God, I'm going to draw a blank, association. So, and that costs, there's a monthly fee for that, which all these fees can be scary if you're not, like, active, because they're constantly coming out monthly to just be a real estate agent. When people are realtors for a while and they realize, you know, I'm losing business and they can't necessarily afford these association fees or whatever, their brokerage fees, they don't renew their license, you know, because it just doesn't, like, level out. So, ideally, you want to do business as soon as possible just to pay those. Honestly, right now, it's a little over $100 a month to be a part of an association and then a $150 fee to get your license, and usually brokerages have office fees as well. Just bouncing off of that, Chris mentioned that if you are inactive and you wanted to, like, you could pause your license somehow. Okay. So, that is an option instead of not having it or getting rid of it. Yeah. So, you can pause it somehow and not have to pay those things and maybe get back into it at a different time. It is a little scary. All of those fees are a little scary, especially when you have, you know, life to pay for. So, it's definitely, you know, we keep reminding ourselves that it's an investment. It's an investment in our future and the career we're choosing. I went to a private, or I don't know what you call it, but, like, an off-site nursing school. Private nursing school. And, you know, you pay, at that time, what, eight years ago, it was $25,000 to $30,000. So, the same thing. It's an investment. With that, obviously, you're able to get loans and stuff, and this is very minimal compared to that, but you have to start somewhere. I think with that in our personalities, it just pushes us to go a little further. You know, like, we have to make these sales. I have to definitely try to outreach as much as I can and, yeah, help pay for all of that. And you also have to pay for your own marketing, which Ali has gone the social media route, and so that's helpful and it's more free. But eventually, once we start, you know, trying to make our name huge and bigger than just maybe South Elgin or the surrounding cities, that we will pay for more types of advertisement and stuff like that. But, so, moving on from there, hopefully I didn't scare you all because it's all possible. I did nursing school with two children. I started nursing school for all the prerequisites and all of that when my oldest was six months old, and then I went through the program itself when they were about two, I would say two and four, and I got my nursing license in 2016, so they were five and three. That's when Carson was born. That's crazy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then, yeah, Ella, with my four-year-old, I became a director of nursing when she was born, and then now I have Chloe, my newborn, and I got my real estate license, which is just, you know, you move, you grow, you change, and you grow, and that's the biggest thing is we're just going to keep growing and learning, and I'm all for that. So tell them about our plan. I don't know what our plan is because I can't think that far. You've got some big, big dreams. You know, I'm here for the ride, and I'll go at my own pace. I am here, and as soon as we get a name out there, I'm hoping to double do my job, so do the real estate and my director of nursing position for at least another year. I've gotten several promotions over there, and I'm learning a lot. I already have plans to learn things in that job this year, but it really helps me relate to people, and I'm hoping I can grow my circle there. Where's my work phone? I'm going to pause it real quick. Okay. Okay, so she had to answer the phone because she has a full-time job, but here we go. We're back. Go ahead. Talk about what we're talking about. I don't know. So I want to get to purchasing this license. Yeah, let's do that. So I received an e-mail stating that I passed the test. I actually received it from PSI, which I believe is the testing that's the type of testing you do, so I got the e-mail from them. On that, it gives you next steps. So then you have to link up with IDFCR, and you have to get your license. So I followed that link. It gives you the link to do so. And now you have to apply for your real estate license, which is $150. Real estate board. So I'm just logging in. I'm going to do this on my phone. I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. on Instagram while we are recording because this is real-life stuff. First episode. So exciting. So I'm going to have to answer some questions. Yeah, I actually am seeing like five houses tomorrow. So an agent called me while we were recording as well. So I just wanted to mention the whole on-call thing with my sister and that it's really stressful with her work. You are also on-call 24-7 as an agent, but there's something different about having it be your own business that you need to answer to. You can set hours. You cannot answer the phone past 7. I think that's pretty common when it comes to talking to other agents and all of that. Now, with your clients, you don't necessarily want to avoid their calls, but kind of you can let them know if it's an emergency. You can call me after 7. And that kind of sets the precedent. So where are you at, Denny? It's always more complicated than you think, but it's asking for a copy of my marriage license, I believe, because I had a previous name. Okay. So we're going to have to not do this on here, huh? You don't have that. Let me upload. Yeah, I'm not sure. Okay. All right, well. Well, that was fun. I'm going to go through this website, though, and pay for it, and next time we are here we can discuss how that process went. Of course, we thought it was going to be just a simple click, click, yes, we'll pay for it and move on. It's never the case. That's why I think it's so cool to have it on the show, because that way people know it's not just a click, click, click, you know, to be prepared with that. So once she gets her license, this is super exciting, she can start taking on clients. And I think, like she said, she has a lot of people at her work that want to buy a house or sell a house. Do you have anybody that needs to sell a house? No, not yet. But I did talk to somebody who may be interested, but it was just in regards to the profit they may be able to get. Oh, the equity? Uh-huh. But it was less than a year and things like that, so I don't really have any answers for them now, which I did. Actually, the other day my sister was at my work, and I knew of somebody who was just wanting basic information on where they should start, and so I had my sister talk to her about those steps that I'm not aware of, and it was helpful. So I didn't mention this before, but before this I was a bartender. And there's some training you take to be a bartender. There's one specific, like, day or two where you're training, and you're basically what the bartender does is sits down and has you do all the jobs. I think that is the best way to learn. And with this job, you can take all the classes in the world. You can watch videos. You can even ask questions. But the moment, like, you have a client, and that's why I had Danny bring in this girl right away. I'm like, bring her in. So that way you can feel and see exactly what she's going through and what she needs, and you can have answers in that moment and get that hands-on experience. You wouldn't know what to ask as a new agent. Like, she literally was just like, I don't know, should I have her come in here? And I'm like, yeah, it's like, because you don't know. And the girl, her questions were, you know, how much money do I need to have saved? What's the credit score? What's, like, the credit score I need to be reaching for? And we kind of talked, like, budget, and, you know, I'm not a lender, but I gave her some points because I do have experience with people buying and using lenders. So, yeah, that was extremely beneficial for her to have that moment, that in-the-room moment with that. So, yeah. Did you feel like you learned a little bit through that? Yeah. I actually went out and told other people that, you know, what your minimum credit score needs to be, the very minimum, what you could put down, those kinds of questions. Yeah. So, that was, yeah, definitely helpful. I did find a copy of my marriage license. How? All this stuff. You have it on your phone? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Look at her. I'm still trying to do this. That's why I can't. I can't do both. There's no way. Do both what? Talk and do this. Yeah, guys, she said she was shy. Do you believe it? The thing is, is, like, when we talk, because we're sisters, right? And I can't wait to hear this back. Do we sound alike? We hear it all the time. I hope you guys can tell who's who when we're talking. Our parents can't tell. If we answer each other's phones, our parents, sometimes our spouses can tell. Yeah. Oh, no. They can't. It's been a while since we've done that. I know. We've got to do that again. We should do that on this podcast. That would be awesome. But, yeah, so when we talk, we talk forever and ever and ever and ever and ever, and we both have extremely busy lives. So this podcast is going to really give us that time to honestly, like, build what we want to build. Like I said earlier, I want to have a brokerage. I want agents to come to us so we can get them through the license process and help them be successful. Because I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I know it's an extremely low percentage of agents that actually do something with their license. And it's not thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to become an agent, but regardless, it's money, and you don't want to waste that money. And if you even go to school and spend that time learning and trying to pass the class, you know, you have a desire and a passion to do real estate. So it pains me to know that people just did it and don't do anything with it. So that's honestly why we're here. And always and forever, while, you know, you know me and my sister, we are here for you guys to answer any questions about it, about being a realtor or about buying or selling or renting. We are here. Danny's not yet. She has to get her license. But she's doing it right now, live. Yeah. What's up? Where you at? It was just not letting me go next because I'm also doing this on my phone, so it's probably so much easier on a computer. Yeah, she has to actually go back to work. She is on lunch break right now. And luckily, we live within a 10-mile radius. She works within a five-mile radius of my house. So she'll be able to come over here and do these. We want to do weekly podcasts. We haven't decided the day yet, but that's the plan. It's not letting me move forward. I probably will have to do this on the computer, and I am out of time. But thank you all. And like Ellie said, I was nervous we wouldn't have anything to talk about. So there's that. Yeah, we got this. Thanks for listening. Reach out. And of course, if you have any house needs, we're here. Any house, home moving needs. Any property moving going on. We can do it. We're happy to help. You guys have a great day, and keep smiling. Forever, or not, you know. All right.