Real Estate Through Every Market

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County podcast, our guest is Lynn Hellmann, the owner and founder of My Southern View Realty. We talked to Lynn about growing up in Harnett County, her time at Campbell University, she was a school teacher for a while, how she got into real estate, how the market has changed over the years, where the market is now, and what she thinks that a buyer can do to make themselves a stronger buyer, and what a seller can do to make their house more likely to be sold quickly for the highest dollar.

So if you’re interested in this, listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of [00:01:00] this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. And on today’s episode, we have Lynn Hellman, the owner and operator of My Southern View Realty right here in Johnston County.

We’re gonna talk to her a little bit about growing up in Harnett County, her time at Campbell, her time as a teacher, how she got involved in new construction, got a real estate license, and has built probably one of the most unique boutique real estate firms right here in Johnston County. But before we get to that, I’d like to ask you to like, follow, and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, or any of the other social media channels of the Best of Johnston County podcast.

The Best of Johnston County podcast comes out every single Monday, and has now for well over two and a half years. Go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had a lot of great guests, the vast majority of the county commissioners. We had local dentist Tim Sims. We had Woody Bailey, IT provider.

We had Barry Woodard, the owner of Hometown Realty, [00:02:00] talk about what he’s got going on with real estate in the area just a few weeks ago. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. Welcome, Lynn.

Lynn Hellman: Thank you. Thank you.

Jonathan Breeden: And this podcast may not have still been going two and a half years later if it would not have been your assistance- with us getting guests when we first started.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You got us probably four or five of the very first seven or eight guests we had, and you gotta get a few guests started and, and you did that. And so you get credit for this podcast surviving, we’re 130 episodes and more now, because we needed those first few guests.

Lynn Hellman: Well, congratulations, because you have been asking me to come on for a while, and I’ve been, “I’m so busy. I’m so busy.” Yeah. So I appreciate you for still- But it was- … still hitting me up for that … it

Jonathan Breeden: was fun. Well, one of the people you sit with, Backpack Buddies.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That was one of the very … And you’ve been involved with them for a long time.

Lynn Hellman: Yes. I’m board member of Backpack Buddies. I run all of our social media and just try to, like, I’m kind of the quiet, quiet one behind the scenes. I’m not out there. You won’t see me a lot at, like, the food line picking up our food. But you’ll see [00:03:00] me- It’s- … making sure I can get all the people there

Jonathan Breeden: right, and they’re still … Cleveland Area Backpack Buddies is still going strong, packing, you know

Lynn Hellman: Yes, we

Jonathan Breeden: a lot over 100, 100 backpacks a week, I think.

Lynn Hellman: Oh, we, we are up to about 250 kids a month right now.

Jonathan Breeden: Gosh.

Lynn Hellman: And so with that, we have our board, and we have a volunteer board that helps us. I mean, all of us are volunteers anyway.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah.

Lynn Hellman: But we, I mean, we are planning already for school year coming up in August, so we take a little bit of a break in June, July, and August. We will pack in August, but we’re still trying to get business, get- Sponsors get money donated so that we can continue to do what we do. I mean, our, our budget is, is pretty steep.

I mean, we raised over $40,000 at our Backpack Buddy Gala, and I mean, it doesn’t take much. We spent about $11,000 on our last month bagging. So-

Jonathan Breeden: God damn …

Lynn Hellman: it’s a, it’s

Jonathan Breeden: definitely a step too. It’s, it’s a lot. I mean, to send that much food home with kids every weekend so they’ve got something to eat over the weekend, that’s, that’s tremendous.

And you know, been glad to be a part of all that, your [00:04:00] galas and all that stuff over the years.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah, absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: But anyway. Well, yeah, so anyway, I was talking about Back- that was one of the very first guests you did send our way. Anyway, but tell us who you are and what you do.

Lynn Hellman: So Lynn Hellman, obviously. I grew up in Harnett County and I went to Harnett Central and decided I wanted to go to Campbell and basically just stay in my backyard. I actually got a cheer scholarship, so I went there on a cheerleading scholarship. One of the only colleges that still give cheerleading scholarships, let me just plug that.

And then when I graduated, I taught middle school for a year down in Harnett County, and then decided I’m gonna get my real estate license. Got my real estate license. Did that for a few years till I had kids, then decided, hey, I think I wanna go back to teaching. Went back and taught at Garner High School for three years and loved that, loved the impact that I was able to make on those kids.

Still stay in contact with a lot of the kids that I taught, even back when I graduated college and in high school. So yeah, so I’ve just been doing that and then I went back into real estate after been at [00:05:00] Garner for three years and haven’t looked back.

Jonathan Breeden: Man, that’s wild. That’s wild.

Lynn Hellman: At 20 years. I think it’s 20 years officially today, like this month.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, ’cause you started in 2006, I think.

Lynn Hellman: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, yeah, we’re getting old now.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And we’ve been doing this a long time.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I’ve been doing this 26 years. You’ve been doing it 20 years.

Lynn Hellman: Well, I mean I think that’s the biggest part of trying to get. There’s so many people trying to sell real estate right now. I think the biggest benefit is finding someone that does have experience. If I’m going to a divorce attorney, I’m gonna make sure, well, how long have they been doing this? Did they just get their license? Like, how long has this been going on? So yeah, so I feel like the experience does help. I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and the, all the economies.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, you’ve seen a lot of different markets.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, you know, and no market is forever and I know you’ve seen that. I mean, I think you were involved in new construction back when the market crashed in ’08, ’09.

Lynn Hellman: Oh, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I think that’s about the first time I met you, and everything sort of went to pot, and you somehow figured out a way to survive that.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah, I think that was the time period where we were seeing a lot of rent-to-own options, and I [00:06:00] mean, builders were out there just struggling to get inventory off the ground, like to get it sold, get it off their books.

And so we ended up having to do a lot of, you know, we’ll rent this out to you for six months with the option to buy, and your rent will credit towards the purchase price. I mean, anything we could do to get houses moving. I mean, we even had friends that were buying houses at, at bank cost just so that we could get out of loans.

So I definitely think seeing the market in that fragile of a state has helped me as the years have gotten better.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, and then you’ve seen the market, you know, especially in Johnston County, become so hot. We were joking before we started recording that, you know, 2019, 2020, 2021, you, you put a sign in the yard and you would take bids for a week.

You’d have a bid opening seven days later, and you’d just pick the best bid, and the house sold, but that’s not what it is now.

Lynn Hellman: No, I mean, we had in in 2019, 2020, 2021, even a little bit in ’22, we had people that were paying just [00:07:00] insane amounts of due diligence, and if you’re not sure what due diligence is, that’s non-refundable.

That’s non-refundable money that you’re putting into the contract. So we’d have buyers that were coming from, you know, across the country buying houses and putting $150,000 in due diligence down to secure a property that was in multiple offers, and that’s money that you’re not getting back unless you stay in the contract, and you, obviously, you get a credit for it when you stay in contract, but had anything been extremely wrong with the home, you know, that’s $150,000 on the line, but it was the market they were in.

They were in North Raleigh, over a million dollar home out in Cary, same thing. We saw a lot of just these insane amounts of due diligence, which in return was comforting for the agents because we were like, they have so much on the line, like they’re not gonna terminate this contract. But it was also extremely dangerous for a lot of people that were putting that amount of money on the line, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, I could, I, I can imagine. I mean, you haven’t had a home [00:08:00] inspection yet. I mean-

Lynn Hellman: Right …

Jonathan Breeden: didn’t exactly know what you were gonna get.

Lynn Hellman: You just wanted to be under contract.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Lynn Hellman: And that’s what they were paying to get under contract. And during that time we had tons of agents that were just flooding and coming into the market and getting their real estate license because it was easy.

It was easy. I mean, houses were selling really quick. We had 2 and 3% interest rates. Of course people are gonna buy. So I mean, it was one of those things where agents that had been in the business for a long time were really like Let’s give this, let’s give this a minute. Like it was a craze, like a frenzy.

And we even … I’ve talked to several other agents that have been in the business as long as me, and we were kind of like, all right, once the dust settles, some of these agents that just popped into the market when it was super easy are really gonna struggle because there was no work into it. You literally had buyers coming out from everywhere for the 2, 3% interest rates.

And, you know, you’re trying to handle all the buyers. You’re also trying to handle the sellers that are trying to sell their house and get in a lower [00:09:00] interest rate. So, I definitely think that was just a, a very unique time for real estate and I’m happy to see we are a little bit more stable now.

I am definitely happy with that.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, yeah, because now it’s, it, you actually have to … I mean, I’m joking. You actually have to work now

Lynn Hellman: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: to sell these houses. And the average house, I think, is on the market in Johnston County about 34 days. So it’s still not forever, but it’s not 7 to 10, which it was back then.

So,

Lynn Hellman: I mean, those we were getting, I mean, we were getting just, we were doing coming soon on every single listing, and we would have sight unseen offers before we even went active, meaning that they can’t go in the house until it’s active on the MLS. So if it’s coming soon, you would just see the pictures online.

And so a lot of people were really … That’s when we started doubling down on the 3D virtual walkthroughs and tours through Matterport and because they, we were scared for them to actually be putting offers in sight unseen because it was such [00:10:00] a liability for a buyer. So having that 3D tour, having those other really great enhanced photos were good for them to see when we were in such a competitive market.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I was just on your website before we started recording this, and that Matterport thing was really, it was like, looked like a 3D model sort of floating around where you really felt like you were in the house. You could take a walking tour of the house.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And I’ve not seen that before. I don’t know how many realtors do that, but I’ve not seen that before, and I know that’s something you invest in for the houses that you’re selling. You know, is that why you got into it? Because you had people buying sight unseen? You know, how much extra work is that for you to do? Because I literally look at houses all the time, and I’d never seen it.

Lynn Hellman: Well, so we used to use, you know, our photographer would walk through with kind of, you know, a camera kind of like on a little tripod, and would just video the entire house and then slowly we started seeing more and more software come out which did allow for the 3D. I mean, you can look at the ceiling, you can look at, you know, the flooring, you can look at light [00:11:00] fixtures.

So it does give you a little bit more. I mean, in a lot of it, you can’t go outside and see around the property. I would love to see a little bit more of that kind of play into it. A lot of people want to see what the outdoors look like, what’s the back porch look like, things like that.

But for inside the house itself, I mean, it’s fantastic. Like, and that software just kind of hit the market and everyone started picking it up and running with it. Like, if you’re not using that software right now in real estate, like, I mean, you’re not really giving the full potential for your listings.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you. And you have a professional photographer take pictures of all your listings.

Lynn Hellman: Yes. I’ve used several different companies. I use Lighthouse Visual now. I had used a local company as well. And just kind of started to figure out a little bit more of the advantage to going with a company that has the bells and whistles.

Like, they’ll take amenity photos for me, they’ll take night photos, they’ll do, you know, any type of staging, additional staging. If it’s a vacant house, they’ll go in and digitally stage the [00:12:00] house. So,

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s nice.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Digitally stage the house.

Lynn Hellman: So they’ll do all kinds of things now, so it’s good.

Jonathan Breeden: Man, I’ve I’ve, I’ve, I’ve heard about digital staging, but I, I guess that’s a lot cheaper than actual staging.

Lynn Hellman: Yes. We used to use a company called Box Brownie, and they would do, they would charge a small fee. You’d send them the pictures from the photographer, and they would charge a small fee, and then they would basically send it back to you digitally staged.

Now, a lot of these photography companies have realized, like, this is a great opportunity, so they have been doing it as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s great.

Lynn Hellman: So it’s kind of like a, a whole big package. You can get a- You can get a few of your images staged, or you can do, like, dawn to dusk pictures at night, things like that.

So,

Jonathan Breeden: yeah. Oh, that’s really neat. Really neat. So where is the market now? I mean, we’re recording this at the beginning of June of 2026. Interest rates are 6, maybe 7, depending on when you look at them. I mean, where’s the market now?

Lynn Hellman: I think the market is in a place where new construction is kind of, has the upper [00:13:00] hand right now, and new construction has the upper hand because they have the ability to have in-house lenders, and those in-house lenders can offer things that your normal lender cannot touch.

They’re giving, you know, tens and thousands of dollars in incentives. They’re doing buydown rates, so they’re helping you buy down the rate. So they’re really, really doing a lot for people that are looking for, you know, as much of a deal as they can get on the lender side of things. So I would say that’s probably where we are when it comes to new construction.

Resale properties, your house just has to be, it has to be ready. It has to be ready. You cannot say, “Well, let’s see how it does with a few weeks on the market, and then decide if we’re gonna go in and paint.” No, you need to paint before you’re putting your house on the market. You need to make sure if your carpet needs to be replaced, it needs to be replaced before you put it on the market.

So I think for houses that are taken care of, well taken care of, and look good, and you feel it when you walk in that front door, those houses are not gonna sit on the market. There’s no buyer that’s gonna walk past that house, [00:14:00] unless it’s extremely overpriced. And everyone always says, you know, you gotta price it to sell it, not to own it.

Absolutely. But if you’ve taken care of the house, you’re gonna get more bang for your buck as well. So I say that whether it’s 30 days on the market, five days. I had a house I just listed in North Raleigh, and I thought, “Okay, we’re gonna be on the market for some time.” It had a lot of houses in the same floor plan in the neighborhood, and we sold in the first three days it was on the market.

So I definitely think people are noticing what you have done, like any extras that you’ve added to it, any upgrades, anything like that you can do to really give the house, you know, that extra little pizzazz.

Jonathan Breeden: So give me some examples

Lynn Hellman: I’m gonna say not gray walls as we sit here with-

Jonathan Breeden: Gray walls.

Lynn Hellman: Gray walls.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. My office has three little gray walls.

Lynn Hellman: Not gray walls. I mean, I just said this the other day on Facebook, like the gray is starting to kind of fade out. Unless you’re gonna put a pop of color in there with it, you know, making sure your kitchen island is a different color than your cabinets that are on [00:15:00] the wall.

Just give it a little bit of pop, a little bit of personality. Making sure that you have, you know, really staged your house so that people were coming through and, and seeing like your h- house and not your stuff. Like I stress that all the time. You know, depersonalizing the space, making sure that you, you’re looking at bookshelves and it’s not 75 pictures, and I’m guilty of this in my own house, but-

Jonathan Breeden: I’ve got that too.

Lynn Hellman: Yeah … but when I would sell my house, I would take all of that down and depersonalize it. So it’s just like small things. It’s not even, it’s not even like you have to update a whole bathroom and spend $30,000 on a bathroom. It’s make sure that everything looks good. Go in there and, and re-grout. Go in there and re-caulk.

But leave the tile that you have. There’s nothing wrong… I mean, people are gonna like your tile or they’re gonna hate it. That’s the way it is with everything. So there’s small things that you can do.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, you probably wouldn’t get $30,000 back out of a bathroom renovation

No … anyway.

Lynn Hellman: No.

Jonathan Breeden: But you’re right about the caulking and, and the tile, that, that kind of stuff.

The other thing is, I mean, the, what is the outside? [00:16:00] Like the curb appeal. When somebody drives up, do they see themselves living in that house?

Lynn Hellman: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, the bushes trimmed, the yard look nice. I, I think a lot of people-

Lynn Hellman: It’s also about your neighbors …

Jonathan Breeden: lose, lose on that.

Lynn Hellman: Like what does your neighbor’s house look like? I mean, I just had this conversation yesterday with a client and I said, “Well, what does your neighbor’s houses look like? Like h- how are they looking?” Because when, when they bought the house with me, I remember one of the neighbors did not look so great on the one side, and I thought, “Okay, when you go to sell, you’re really gonna have to take into account who’s around you and what they’re doing with their property.”

So while not being in an HOA or being in the city limits where you’re not in a neighborhood can be beneficial, it can also hurt you when you’re trying to sell your house.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, I never, I never really thought about that.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: But yeah, I guess you’re absolutely right.

Lynn Hellman: And I tell all my buyer clients, drive by, and again, this is a great market that we’re in that we, we do have a little bit more time now to drive by a house before we go to it, because I never as an agent wanna leave feedback to another agent of, they didn’t like the neighbor’s yard, or they didn’t like the location, or they didn’t like [00:17:00] how, how the driveway sloped.

Like those are things we can do, they can do on their own without an agent having to be there to hear them say that. So feedback I wanna leave for an agent is, you know, the floor plan didn’t work. The bedrooms were too small. They feel like it needs to be painted. You know, there needs more updates.

There’s a lot of scuff marks on the wall. Things like that. So I try to respect, you know- the agent’s time and not provide, like, trash feedback that they can’t even really use. Like, they can’t do anything about the neighbor’s yard, can’t do anything about the sloped driveway. So, those things are kind of important to me to, I would send a buyer out.

Now, back in 2021, ’22, we were not sending buyers out. We didn’t have time. Like, we were literally, it was active and we were there five minutes later. So that’s the difference.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Okay.

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Jonathan Breeden: Well, and that’s true, and, and you can, you can work with people. And if somebody’s thinking about selling their house, I mean, they, they should probably call you maybe 6 to 12 months before they really want to sell it.

Does that help?

Lynn Hellman: I mean, I’d say if they call about six months, we can start putting a pulse on where the market is and seeing like, okay, when is good, when is, when is it slow? A lot of people always say spring is the best time. You know, I say start February, March, get a little bit ahead of the spring market.

Go ahead and put your house on the market and see what kind of traction you get and, you know, see how, how many people are actually interested because you’re going to have less competition during that time, too, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that, that makes, that’s a good point. Now, the home values around here, at least in Johnston County, have flattened probably for about three years from what I’ve seen.

We had this big push. Everybody’s went up $150,000 during COVID.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And then it’s kind of just [00:19:00] laid similar. I mean, I mean, it’s sort of laid flat. Well- Why is that? And when do you think the home prices will start pushing up again?

Lynn Hellman: I mean, I think we’ve stabilized to a healthy place. If you look where we jumped so far, that was completely unhealthy and it was in pure insanity. I mean, even appraisers were trying to slow it down, trying, as they were getting contracts that were, you know, hundreds of thousand dollars over where they should be. They were trying to slow, pump the brakes, slow the values. And while it didn’t help with contracts always going through, it did help us kind of brace ourself for where we are now.

I think the stabilizing, again, if you’ve done the things to your house that you need to, if you have kept your house in good condition, if you’ve updated the things throughout your home, you’ve got upgrades throughout, you’ve got, let’s say you have a pool in your backyard, you’re not gonna get a ton of value, but at least you have a pool in your backyard.

You’ve got that curb appeal to it. Like, you’re still going to do well in this market. There’s not anything that makes this market [00:20:00] terrible on any account, right? What makes it a little bit harder for people to grasp is that interest rates are higher, so if they’re trying to get out of a 2 or 3% interest rate and go and buy, they’re having a sticker shock.

And also, you know, we have house prices that are slowly increasing now at a healthy rate, rather than just this crazy overboard rate.

Jonathan Breeden: But now, does it make it harder on the resales now, particularly the resales for houses that were bought in ’23 or ’24, now they’re looking to sell them in ’26, and they’re basically gonna get what they paid for it, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, depending on the house. How are y’all dealing with that?

Lynn Hellman: So I think it’s probably not even ’23, ’24. I think ’23, ’24 are probably okay. I think it’s anyone in 19, 2021, maybe ’22 a little bit, a smidge at the beginning. Those people are the ones that are sitting in those good interest rates. Those are the [00:21:00] ones that paid more, but you wouldn’t know it on paper because their interest rate is so low.

So

Jonathan Breeden: Sure

Lynn Hellman: it, it kind of evens itself out. I don’t think that there’s anyone that’s really upside down. When I go to past clients’ homes and look at it on paper, there’s not a ton of people that I walk into and I’m like, “Oh, you’re, you’re majorly upside down.”

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Lynn Hellman: So that’s a, that’s a positive I have probably maybe once or twice in my life said that, and that’s because maybe they take out a home equity line of credit or they have done something else to add debt, like buying solar panels. And I don’t want to knock that, but I just want to say let’s, let’s be realistic in how long you’re gonna live in a house before you go buy solar panels and which side they’re facing when we go to take pictures.

But other than that, I mean, I think that a majority of the people are okay. It … The sticker shock comes with the value’s probably going to be there. 90% of the time the value’s there, it’s just what the payment’s gonna look like and what you’re going to buy after you’re out of a 2% or 3% interest rate. You know, I have [00:22:00] told many of my past clients who’ve said, “We really kind of want to move,” and I’m like, “I’ll tell you, unless it’s a necessity move, like you are moving to another state, you’re moving for a job, or you truly do need to downsize or truly increase the size of your home, like you, you really need to think about this because the payment you have at 3% and you

is going to be double that on that bigger house that you purchase. So, or the smaller house. You could get a smaller house and you’re still paying more than what you are in your current larger house.” So I’m one of those agents that I’m not trying to sell them on making a move until it makes sense Like, I want my clients to trust me and trust what I say, and believe me and, and be honest with them.

I mean, I am- I’m not gonna, you know, overdo it or oversell them on something that I know is not a financially smart investment for them. I’m not gonna do that.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And we’ve talked a little bit about what sellers could do. What can buyers do to put themselves in a better position?

Lynn Hellman: Stay [00:23:00] educated. Know what the market is doing. Like, get a good agent who’s willing to set you up on a search 6 or 12 months before you even wanna start looking. Talk to a lender ahead of time so you know, hey, there might be something scary on your credit report you didn’t know about. Getting a credit report and talking with a lender and getting a check on where you stand and what you need to do in order to be prepared to buy is so important.

You know, you don’t wanna get the cart before the horse, and a lot of that means, like, I always say go on a fact-finding mission. You need to go on the fact-finding mission. You need to talk with the lender. A lot of times I will not even really entertain a whole buyer conversation until they have spoken with a lender and know, like, can we buy or can we not buy?

Like, you know, how much can we buy? And then I send them what’s in that price range, and if they’re like, “Ooh, we need to save more money,” then we backpedal and we say, “Okay, let’s just, let’s talk in a few months. Let’s see if you can save some money so you can afford the house that you want.” So I think a lot of it is just really, like, [00:24:00] nailing down the timeline, nailing down, you know, what people are willing to spend, what they can spend too.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Because I think most buyers want everything, but they can’t have everything, and they get a lot less at 6 or 7% than they could’ve gotten at 3%, and I don’t think they realize it.

Lynn Hellman: I think that’s

Jonathan Breeden: And, and I actually don’t even think 6 or 7% interest rates are bad. When you go back to economics.

Lynn Hellman: Oh, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: We studied in college and all of that and you know, like I know it seems like a lot now because they were 2 or 3, but 2 or 3 is just, it’s too much gas. It’s almost like a, you kind of have a little bit of a fake economy under that but we’re not gonna solve economic.

Lynn Hellman: No.

Jonathan Breeden: Problems today.

Lynn Hellman: No.

Jonathan Breeden: But you know, but I don’t think these interest rates are going anywhere with everything going on. So, you know.

Lynn Hellman: We’re too unstable.

Jonathan Breeden: You need to plan as if that this is what it’s going to be for the foreseeable future, I believe.

Lynn Hellman: Right. Yeah, I mean, we’re too unstable. I mean, everywhere you look we have. It’s just completely unstable.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Lynn Hellman: So there’s nothing that’s bringing us that [00:25:00] reassurance of, okay, we can do a 4% or even a low 5% interest rate. So as of right now, I mean, this is where we are sitting and, you know, while it’s not ideal, especially compared to where we were with the two’s and the three’s, it’s still, like you said, not a bad interest rate.

Jonathan Breeden: So there are a lot of rulers out there. What do you believe your unique proposition is for people looking to buy or sell their home with My Southern View?

Lynn Hellman: I am 100% genuinely, authentically me. You said when you walked in, “Lynn, you’re in shorts.” Yes, I am in shorts, and I have on running shoes. I’m relatable to my clients. Like, I am not one that’s gonna show up decked out with frills and, you know, all over the top. Now, I do like to get dressed up and I do like to get fancy and I love a good poof sleeve now. But, you know, if I’m going out and I’m meeting with clients that are looking at a $300,000 house, like, I’m not gonna roll up in a BMW or a Cadillac and be like, “Hey, I’m so relatable.”

[00:26:00] No, I’m not relatable. You know, I have family that’s in this area. I have my kids go to school here. Like, I’m gonna see these people at the grocery store. So, and I’m never looking like that in the grocery store. So for me, it’s being able to be relatable and give them a little bit of calmness about it, and not an air of, like, I’m better than them, or I have all the money in the world to tell them how to spend their money. Like, I’m not that person.

And you know, I just, I value honesty and I value being direct with people, and they trust me. Right. They trust what I say and they know that, you know, I’m not gonna just tell them something so they’ll hear it. I mean, I’ve walked in plenty of houses and said, “This is not the house for you.”

And they’ll say, “Well, we really liked it. Why do you think that?” And I’m like, “Okay, let’s go through the logistics.” And, you know, it may mean that they may not buy a house for six more months, but that’s okay because I want them to be in love and happy with the house that they end up buying.

Jonathan Breeden: Mm-hmm.

Lynn Hellman: So that’s just me.

I’m not one of those that’s like turn and burn, onto the [00:27:00] next. We talked a little bit about my company. You know, my company is me. It is me. It is my face on the brand. I started My Southern View and thought, “Okay, I’ll, I’ll grow this. I’ll add some agents into the mix,” and did that a few times and thought to myself no.

I don’t wanna manage the people. I don’t wanna do that.” I don’t want to feel like I have to hover or watch anyone that’s not my child. So I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna do that to people. And, you know, I feel like it’s important to stand by my brand, and I’ve got other agents in this community that also do the same.

It’s just them, their brand, and, you know, honestly, people value that. People value that you are small and that you are out here hustling for every single client. They, each client matters to me, and they become family to me.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So how can people reach out to you and learn more about what you’re doing or look at your listings?

Lynn Hellman: Yep, they can go to mysouthernview.com. They can follow me on Facebook. They can shoot me a text. I can send ’em my lender’s information, [00:28:00] do whatever to connect them and answer any questions.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s great. That’s great. The last question we ask everybody on this podcast, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Lynn Hellman: The people. I do. I love the people. I love the people, and I love Friday night lights in our community. I do. Being involved in that and seeing the joy that people get showing up for kids that aren’t theirs playing on that field brings me joy to stand there and, and just be a part of a community that has each other’s backs.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, you’re, you’re the varsity cheerleading coach at Cleveland High School.

Lynn Hellman: I am. I know that.

Jonathan Breeden: And I love Cleveland High School football, and my kids don’t even go to Cleveland High School, and I still love the football team and support them and help do the radio broadcast and

Lynn Hellman: Yes, and we

Jonathan Breeden: and all of that stuff

Lynn Hellman: appreciate all your support for Cleveland cheer as well. You’re a sponsor year after year, so we appreciate you.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, it’s great. That’s great. It’s, it’s so much fun, and the community, we don’t have a town, but we do have the Cleveland

Lynn Hellman: Well, good

Jonathan Breeden: high School Rams, and got a new football coach, so we’ll see how that goes.

Lynn Hellman: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Coach Vick. I hope maybe we’ll have him on the podcast here before too long. But anyway, we’d like [00:29:00] to thank Lynn for being our guest on this week’s episode of the Best Johnston County Podcast. If you’re interested in buying or selling a home or just curious where the market is, reach out to her at mysouthernview.com.

She’ll be glad to give you a analysis of where you’re at or where it’s going. She can also help you in other areas, not just Johnston County as well. We didn’t have time to get into some of the other areas that she works in, but if you’re interested in a house anywhere really, give her a call. She can either help you or put you in touch with somebody who can.

As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether we have Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X. Also, please give us a five-star review down below so you’ll, we’ll know what you like about the Best Johnston County Podcast and tag us in your Instagram stories Best of Johnston County. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every [00:30:00] story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.