“What if I ask you a few questions while Jane takes the photos?” I ask her.
The sun was shining and the day would have been actually spring warm if the wind hadn’t been whipping its way through all of our hair and our papers.
Standing on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, afternoon sun streaming across the path, Rebekah Huff laughed. “I think I might be too distracted,” she admitted. Confessing a slight nervousness over the photo shoot, we decided to let Jane do what she does best and I would wait for the photos to be finished before I began the questions.
Maybe taking photos on the trail, being the focus of the lens, takes Rebekah out of her comfort zone, but I’ll tell you what puts her right back directly in the driver’s seat – talking about what she knows best. Real estate.
Rebekah Huff is a real estate agent with RE/MAX and she is focusing in on the Upstate area.
After the photo shoot we walked the trail for a bit before popping into Upcountry Provisions for a couple of teas – sweet tea for Rebekah and hot tea for me.
A native of neighboring Pickens County, Rebekah attended Greenville Tech and has been a life long resident of the Upstate.
“I like building long term relationships with people,” Rebekah begins, leaning forward and sharing her story with hand gestures and sincere conversation.
She began her career in property management but moved rather quickly into real estate and fully embraced the world of buying and selling. Rebekah worked through the recession and into the current market so she has seen the various highs and lows of the business over the years.
One of the first reasons Rebekah was drawn to focusing her skill set in Travelers Rest was the difference between Greenville and TR. “When I would drive out to TR from Greenville, I would come out of the traffic and be on Hwy. 25 and it was just so beautiful and relaxing,” she smiled. “It was gorgeous and I was so drawn to that.”
Naturally, we agree.
“TR is still maintaining its small town feel and yet you can be in a bigger city in just a short time,” Rebekah says and she believes TR carries that appeal to many different buyers who appreciate the proximity to Greenville, Asheville and the Tryon area.
Some of the types of buyers who particularly have the heart of Rebekah are both veterans and first responders. In fact, she offers special incentives and promotions to help encourage and enable veterans to become home owners and to benefit from their experiences. Her face lights up as she describes the opportunities she provides for veterans. Rebekah even takes this commitment to the next level, offering her veteran clients $500 of her own commission to help with the closing costs. She also recommends and works with a lender who specifically works with veterans to help cover more of their up front expenses.
Rebekah shares a story of one veteran with whom she worked where she had to search out homes not yet on the market to try to meet his particular needs. “We worked through hurdle after hurdle,” she recalls. She remembers fondly how satisfied she felt at the closing table with him. “I was literally proud of my client to have made it through everything,” she says. And the shine in her eyes is evidence of her commitment to her clients.
You see a softness as Rebekah talks about her work with veterans and first responders. It’s a passion that bubbles up as she talks, both with her words, but also with her hand gestures and her eyes. “I truly admire and appreciate veterans and first responders. They are people who have risen above and are still believing in the good. They are as human as us all, but they have bigger hearts than most people realize. They can do tough things and they’re doing those things not for big bucks,” she says. “This is just my way of helping as I can.”
Every realtor keeps a list of service providers they use routinely. Rebekah works hard to be certain that on her list of providers she includes both provider businesses that are veteran-owned and also service providers who offer discounts and assistance to veterans as well.
“I love when I have met my client’s needs,” Rebekah says. And that can be a challenge in this real estate climate where there are more buyers than there are sellers. “I love to meet my buyer clients’ first at the office – at a neutral location – to really get to know them. I’m working on their behalf. Meeting people helps me establish what their needs actually are.”
Her tag line is “Real Estate Simply SOLD” and Rebekah says that tagline came after much thought. “It’s more than finding a property. It goes beyond just that. It goes to the inspections and working through those. It’s getting the clients right to the finish line. It’s what I feel like I’m there for. To make this as simple on my clients as possible.”
Despite the come and go of the restaurant around us, Rebekah is focused in on our conversation and we’re certain that exact trait translates to her clients – that single-minded focus and direct attention.
When you hire a real estate agent, you do expect an expert. And it’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Rebekah walks that edge and shares her expertise acquired through continued education and attention to details. She’s dedicated to her clients and her area of knowledge. You’ll find her attending classes regularly to increase her knowledge base and keep her on top of current issues and concerns that will affect her clients. It’s important to Rebekah to stay educated and aware and her dedication in these areas absolutely translates to the care her clients experience with her.
With a keen eye for details and numbers, Rebekah keeps a close watch on the rates as they rise or fall and she loves to chart the growth and the change in the market. And all of that fine attention to details helps non numbers people (like me) navigate and make sense of the current market and see a bigger picture.
“This is a good year for sellers,” Rebekah says, as she goes over the graph with me. “It’s good for buyers and good for sellers. Interest rates are going to likely increase this year. Right now sellers can still get top dollar but buyers can also get a good interest rate. You’re still getting optimal pricing and affordable interest rates. That’s paying off for buyers who can get into an affordable rate. And also for sellers. Now is an optimal time for an upgrade for sellers too. This year is good for both.”
The graphs show the numbers for both 29690 and 29609 zip codes.
“For those who want to take advantage of the seller’s market, think about this,” Rebekah shares, her passion flowing right into her hand movements. “Investors invest in real estate to make money. In a way, retail homeowners are also investors. My experiences working with investors and my drive to maximize opportunities have honed my skills working for sellers whether they’re traditional investors or the homeowner who needs to sell due to a financial difficulty or the growing family ready for an upgrade to their next home.”
I asked Rebekah what she would like her clients to walk away with when their keys are handed over and the house is officially theirs or is officially a house of their past.
“I want it to be a good transaction, a good memory. If they’re selling, I want their last memory of their home to be a good one. If they are buying a home, I want them to walk away believing and knowing it was a good transaction, setting themselves up for their next life step – either staying or leaving,” Rebekah says.
Once, Rebekah tells a story of how she applied for a job and was told that her persistence and tenacity were exactly what the job called for. And she took that as an encouragement, a guide for how to traverse the world of business in her future. And in life. “I took the challenge to heart, to be persistent, to keep trying. I don’t want to lost that trait.” She laughs a little and shares that it seems much easier to fight for her clients, to put her efforts into their success.
Which we think means that it sounds like real estate is a little like life. A metaphor for the big picture. You can get out of it what you put into it. “I’m here to represent my clients, not just to make a sale. But to actually know them and meet their needs,” Rebekah says. “You have to find a way to step outside of yourself and go for what you want. It’s easier to ask for them than to ask for myself. To fight for their needs.” Rebekah shares that all of these experiences, however, have helped her to get to where she is, to create in her a drive and a desire to serve the needs of her clients and to educate herself well to enable them to make wise decisions.
Eventually we walked back to our cars parked near Sunrift. Notebooks tucked into bags. Recorder turned off. Waiting for the “walk” light to give us access to cross the street. And the night had turned dark and the street lights were on and the town was twinkling, laughter coming from folks at Swamp Rabbit Brewery and we were just two people, walking in a small town we both loved and leaving with a new friend and a better knowledge of both Rebekah and real estate.
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Want to get in touch with Rebekah Huff?
You can contact Rebekah at (864) 810-SOLD
Visit her website: http://www.
Find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
