Trust the Leap: How Austyn Galmarini Built a Referral-Based Real Estate Business

Most new real estate agents wait for the “right time” to start — after the wedding, after the kids, after the finances feel bulletproof. Austyn Galmarini did the opposite. She took her licensing exam, boarded a plane to Spain to celebrate her 30th birthday, found out mid-trip that she’d passed, flew home, put in her two weeks’ notice, and started her first official day on July 1, 2022. In this episode of the REI Agent podcast, Austyn — a licensed salesperson on the Enos Latif team at Hunt Real Estate ERA in Williamsville, New York — walks through how a journalism degree, a radio career, and a year and a half selling RVs prepared her to build a relationship-driven business from scratch. Her story is a practical roadmap for any agent who’s tired of waiting for perfect conditions that never arrive.

Who is Austyn Galmarini, and how did a journalism major end up selling homes?

Austyn’s path into real estate was anything but linear. She left Buffalo for West Virginia University to study television journalism, chasing the energy of college game day and dreams of being on camera. After graduating, she landed at 97 Rock Cumulus Media, where she did everything from working the prize table at concerts to broadcasting on-air before Buffalo Bills games and shows by the Rolling Stones and Bob Seger. When she needed to increase her income, she pivoted into RV sales — a fast, high-turnover world of trade shows where she’d sometimes close two or three deals in a single day and travel the country for manufacturer training.

The RV grind eventually broke her. After working a 10-day show, spending her “day off” driving a 33-foot diesel pusher eight hours home, then working another 20 days straight, she was done. That exhaustion pushed her toward a more stable role in a college’s online division, where she spent four and a half years climbing the ranks. Then life intervened again: a long-term relationship ended, and at 29 she moved back home with her parents.

That move turned out to be the pivot point. Living at home meant daily conversations with her mom, Beth — a real estate agent who had been building her career since 2006. As Beth shared deals and team stories, Austyn’s curiosity grew into a decision. Every twist in her résumé, from communicating on-air to closing fast RV deals, had quietly been training her for a business built on connection.

Why did Austyn stop waiting for the “perfect timing” to start?

For years, Austyn had filed real estate under “someday.” She figured it might be a good career to pick up when she got married or had kids — a flexible fit for a future version of her life. But sitting at her parents’ house, rebuilding, she challenged that assumption directly. Why wait for a timeline that might never come? Why not go for it now?

So she did. She took the licensing test right after turning 30, flew to Spain to celebrate with her best friend, learned she’d passed while abroad, and came home ready to commit fully. There was no half-measure, no dabbling on the side. She resigned from her job and treated real estate as her career from day one.

That decisiveness matters because real estate rewards commitment far more than it rewards good timing. As host Mattias Clymer noted, plenty of people imagine real estate as a low-effort retirement gig or a casual side hustle — but it takes real time, energy, and effort before it starts rolling. Trying to build it as an afterthought, Austyn agreed, would make an already hard business nearly impossible. Her leap wasn’t reckless; it was the recognition that “perfect timing” is usually just a way to postpone the work.

How do you build a real estate business on relationships instead of bought leads?

When Austyn started in 2022, she didn’t buy leads. Her team’s approach centered on prospecting, self-promotion, and — most importantly — nurturing the relationships that produce referrals. It took a long time to build her pipeline, but the payoff has been durable. Today, she estimates that around 80% of her business comes through her circle of influence and referrals rather than cold, purchased contacts.

The philosophy behind that number is simple: people work with people they know, like, and trust. Austyn leads with her personality. Whether she meets someone at a restaurant or a networking event, she wants to come across as a human being first and an agent second. Only after that connection is established does the business relationship follow — and she tailors her approach to each person, reading whether a client wants a serious professional or someone a little more relaxed and goofy.

That patience runs counter to the “shiny object syndrome” that tempts many new agents toward quick-fix lead sources. Mattias framed the choice as a question worth sitting with: do you want to spend years playing receptionist, answering the phone a hundred times to find one decent client — or would you rather talk to the people you actually want to talk to, who already want to talk to you? Austyn’s business is proof that the slower, relationship-first path compounds. A pipeline built on trust doesn’t evaporate when a lead-gen budget dries up.

Why does knowing your contracts matter more than almost anything?

If Austyn has one non-negotiable piece of advice, it’s this: know your contracts inside and out. Her mother Beth, who reads the realtor magazine’s legal updates every month, drilled her on New York agency law and forms while she was still studying — quizzing her so she could confidently explain any document to a client on the spot. Beth’s warning stuck: other agents will be friendly and charming on the phone, but you never know what they might slip into a contract hoping you won’t notice before it’s signed and sent to the attorneys.

That lesson paid off almost immediately. On her very first sales-contingency deal, Austyn had verbally agreed with the buyer’s agent on a one-day window to lift the contingency. When the contract came back, it read three days. Because Beth had taught her to actually read the paperwork, Austyn caught it and called to correct it. Without that training, she’s convinced she would have missed it — the calls had been so pleasant that she was inclined to trust rather than verify.

Contract fluency isn’t just defensive, either. Austyn now onboards new team members and insists they understand every document, because opportunities arrive unpredictably — a guy at a bar mentioning he’s ready to sell, and the team is at his house the next morning. She walks every buyer through the contract paragraph by paragraph during consultations, treating it as a value-add rather than a formality. Her rule for delivering it: say it in your own words, not canned. As she put it:

“You are signing a legal document and you should know what you are signing.”

Should a new agent join a team or go solo?

Austyn never seriously considered going solo, and she’s refreshingly honest about why. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to do it alone — and rather than treat that as a weakness, she accepted it. With her mom Beth and team lead Anas Latif both offering their support, joining the team was, in her words, a no-brainer. She would have been a fool to insist on figuring it out by herself.

Crucially, joining a team didn’t cost Austyn her individual identity. People know and recognize her as herself — through the personal brand she’s built on social media (@HouseHuntinWithAustyn) and through the direct relationships she’s formed — not merely as an extension of her team lead. The decision came down to trust in a person: once she got to know Anas, she liked her and trusted her, and that made the partnership obvious.

Mattias offered a balanced take for agents weighing the same choice. There’s endless noise about brokerages, commission splits, and 100%-commission models — but a 100% split on zero sales is still zero. Whether solo or on a team, it’s a business decision only the individual can make. For a newer agent, though, the team structure offers something valuable: mentorship, coverage when you’re on vacation, and a culture that reinforces relationships. Austyn’s team leans into that with pickleball days, happy hours, and quarterly “Teamsgiving”-style gatherings — the kind of bonding that turns coworkers into a genuine support system.

What can new agents take away from Austyn’s story?

The throughline of Austyn’s journey is courage paired with preparation. She trusted the leap — refusing to wait for a perfect moment — but she backed that courage with real fundamentals: mastering her contracts, building relationships patiently, and surrounding herself with mentors she trusted. Her financial discipline reinforces the point. In her first meeting with Anas, she was told to keep six months of reserves at all times, because you never know what this business will throw at you.

She also models the boundary-setting that long-term agents learn the hard way. Real estate isn’t a nine-to-five; it’s a business where clients call on holidays and text at 10:45 at night. Austyn’s still working on saying no — she jokes that “The Art of Saying No” is a book she really should read — but she’s clear that protecting your energy and knowing what you’re responsible for is part of building a sustainable career, not a luxury.

For any agent early in the journey, the takeaways are concrete: don’t wait for perfect timing, lead with authentic relationships, know your documents cold, keep a financial cushion, and choose the structure — team or solo — that genuinely sets you up to succeed. The winding road that took Austyn from radio booths to RV lots to real estate wasn’t a detour. It was the training.

Keep building the life you want

Austyn Galmarini’s story is a reminder that the best time to start is usually now — and that courage works best when it’s backed by preparation. If her journey resonated with you, listen to the full episode of the REI Agent podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows, and leave a review to help more agents find the conversation. You can follow Austyn on Instagram at @HouseHuntinWithAustyn.

And if you’re an agent who wants to build the kind of relationship-first business Austyn describes, check out REI Agent Advisor at advisor.reiagent.com — a CRM built for relationship-focused agents, with relationship intelligence baked in to help you track the details that matter, from the Ford Method to clients’ kids’ names and birthdays. Until next time, keep building the life you want.

Full transcript: read the complete episode transcript on the episode page.