Haley Cutter the founder of Cutter Luxe Living with Compass goes back to the beginning of her career in real estate. Haley discusses why she decided to build a team and how her team is built. Haley discusses what her team does to distinguish themselves from the competition and how they are educating their clients about the shift in the market. Haley also talks about balancing family/personal life and professional life.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Haley Cutter can be reached at 774-240-9174 and [email protected].

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This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
How do you talk to your clients about the current market shift? Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Haley cutter. Before we get to Haley just a couple of quick reminders please, as always, the best way you can help our show is by telling a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing the success strategies and tips from top producers like Haley send them a link to our website, right which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done can be streamed right from a browser, or if the person you’re referring to as a podcast listener, have them pull up any podcast app search for keeping it real, hit the subscribe button and last please leave us a review what other whatever app you might be listening to the show through let us know what you think of the show we read every review and comment and it helps us improve so anyway, enough of all that let’s get on to the main event my conversation with Haley cutter.

Today on the show we have Katie cutter who’s a top 1% realtor and founder of Qatar Lux living with compass in Massachusetts. Now Haley cutter is the founder of Qatar Lux living with Compass after growing up in the Boston area and graduating from Emerson. She began her career working for a Top New York City advertising agency but returned to Boston to get her MBA at Northeastern. Once she graduated she shifted gears to the real estate industry in 2014. She co founded la live in luxury, sorry live in luxury real estate. It probably happens all the time. But let me start that one part over so I don’t screw it up because it is really cool. In 2014. She co founded live in luxury real estate at Douglas Elliman and in 2021 launched Qatar Lux living at Compass as the sole founder and managing broker which is now one of Boston’s top luxury real estate groups. And in December of last year, Qatar Lux living had a record breaking month, so not a year a month with 20 million in closings. This is absolutely incredible. Qatar Lux living serves Boston’s most exclusive downtown neighborhoods and surrounding communities all led by Haley’s driving force for a better client experience. The brokerage is currently expanding also into New Hampshire, and Florida. Please everyone visit visit Haley and her team at Cutter lux.com And that is c u t t e r l u x e.com. Again, Cutter lux.com. And by the way, unbelievable realtor website. I’m always impressed whenever I see a really great one. That’s a good one. Go check it out. Haley, welcome to our show.

Haley Cutter 4:19
Well, thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

D.J. Paris 4:23
Yeah, I am so excited to talk with you. I am always you know, I’ve been doing these sorts of conversations for about four or five years now. And I never get tired, talking to top producers and finding out what it is they’ve done to get to where they are and what they’re continuing to do. And right now I think it’s particularly interesting time because I was with a couple 100 agents just a few days ago at an event with our local association. And you could feel the stress and tension in the room as people are realtors are it’s tough right now. You guys are crushing it so I’m excited to hear about what you guys are doing. But I’d love to see start at the very beginning and learn more about you because you didn’t you know, your path didn’t necessarily point towards real estate with with your education. So I’m excited to learn how you how you made that transition and why.

Haley Cutter 5:12
Absolutely. So yeah, not at all. I did not grow up thinking that I would ever be in real estate. It was not anything that I dreamed of as a little girl. I went to school I majored in marketing and advertising. Got my undergraduate degree at Emerson, as you had mentioned in Boston. And then I was off to New York City. I worked for a top agency. They’re great worldwide, and Oh, sure. Great, great. You got an account management working hand in hand with their Procter and Gamble team, Pantene Pro V. Had some great mentors, they’re really, really learned a lot. Learn how to interact with different people. You know, it was a great place to be and maybe from Boston on the East Coast, Boston’s a small city, but if people can after they graduate, I think it’s worthwhile for for anybody, even if you’re coming back to Boston to spend a year or two in New York City. It’s just such a eye opening, wonderful global experience.

D.J. Paris 6:02
I agree. I love both cities in Boston is one that my sister, she’s a brand manager and are well, yeah, she now she she’s a CMO. But she was work lived and worked in New York City as well in sort of the ad, advertising and marketing space. And so we used to visit there a lot. And Boston. I didn’t have as many close friends but I have visited several times in the last five years or six years. And boy, it’s just such a wonderful city. Boston is Boston doesn’t get its do because New York is so close. And it gets overshadowed sometimes. But I got I love Boston, it’s just a walkable, amazing city.

Haley Cutter 6:40
You’ve nailed that extremely walkable, it’s got great neighborhoods, they all have their own authentic flair. And it can become home where or sometimes New York might feel too vast. Boston becomes a neighborhood.

D.J. Paris 6:53
Yeah. So how did you make the pivot from from from being sort of in on Madison Avenue, maybe in New York City, making the switch back to to? Well, not just the Boston but of course, to a new career?

Haley Cutter 7:06
Sure. So I ended up coming back home, I really wanted to be closer to my family, there were a few things going on. And it was important to me to be here. So when I came back to Boston, I tried the advertising route. And I found that it just couldn’t compare with New York City. So at that point in time, my my fiance, who’s now my husband, he was in real estate, and I constantly found myself surrounded by him, his friends who were all in real estate, we were talking real estate, you know, every time went out for dinner every time we had a cocktail party, as we’re taking a walk in the park. And and I did enjoy it. And I thought, you know, what, if I can’t beat them, I’m just going to join them, because I was in it.

D.J. Paris 7:41
Well, to add also, I imagine I’m curious, because you’re really a marketer at heart. And that was, you know, your background, your training as well. I’m curious if you as my background is the same. And I’m curious if you ever looked at some of the marketing and the branding that was happening, the advertising in real estate in the realtor world, for example, and thinking I could do a better job of that, or I could have there’s a lots of room for improvement, I think, right.

Haley Cutter 8:09
And we’re going back to to 2008 2009. And all these great schools and apps that we have now where even if you have no advertising experience, you can put together a really cool ad, those didn’t exist. So some of the real estate advertisements just really weren’t that good.

D.J. Paris 8:30
Yeah, we didn’t we didn’t have Canva back then. Right? Like, he just changed the game for everyone who goes, I don’t really know how to use Photoshop and Canva came around and said, Oh, no problem, we can take care of that for you. And now. And now everyone can have cool looking stuff. Without really a design background. But you’re right back then you were really on your own.

Haley Cutter 8:51
You were you absolutely were. So I loved being able to put my advertising and marketing background to work. PR was also an area that I studied, and it was a perfect complement to to the real estate industry.

D.J. Paris 9:05
Yeah, makes makes so much sense. And I would love to hear about, you know, being that. That you’re you’re from that, you know, from the Boston area you guys serve as all of Massachusetts, Massachusetts, we should say. I have been as far west as which is not very far west as far west as Worcester. That is that is. But I know Massachusetts has got a lot more than just Boston in it. But you guys cover so much ground and your team. So tell us, tell us why you decided to build a team. And I always think this is interesting, because and and the reason I’m asking is there’s so many agents right now who are either solo practitioners, or maybe they’re already on a team. And they’re either thinking I want to join another team. Maybe this team isn’t the right fit or they’re not on a team thinking I either want to build my own team, or I want to join an established one I’m curious on on why you decided to build a team

Haley Cutter 10:00
So the reason that I was driven to grow and build a team is that I know my strengths, my strengths are in marketing, they’re an advertising, they’re in sales, but they’re not in so many other different areas. And I think that as Realtors as workers right now, we are not just being called on to go in open the door and show the features and benefits of a property. But, you know, we’re asked to be the financial analyst, and really, really diving deep into to all the trends where the price points, then mapping it out across the board. So finance side operations. When we work with new development clients, we’re partnering with groups that are doing visualizations. So it’s not as if a photographer can come in and just take photos. But we have members on our team that specialize in all these different areas. And my skills, that that’s not where I’m best utilized, and why I like a team and how we build our team is not just oh, you’re gonna sell in downtown Boston, you’re gonna sell in Beacon Hill, but what are the strengths and attributes that you can build? And how can we all be stronger together?

D.J. Paris 11:06
Yeah, that makes it so so the way that you have your team is our predominantly our people, our agents on your team? Do we? Are they do they have different roles? Or how does your team structure?

Haley Cutter 11:18
Sure, so it does differ project to project home to home, but I’ll give an example. So right now, we are in the process of bringing a beautiful, beautiful $6 million plus property to market. It is located in Newton mass, which is directly outside of Austin, one of the suburbs. It’s also abutting the beautiful golf course. And it is in the pre construction stage. So when we even when we pitched the developer, we’re bringing in our team members who specialized in the visualizations, we are bringing in our team members who have different speak different languages than I do. So we have manual, Cantonese speaking, specialists. We’re bringing in our finance team. And then we’re saying okay, so I’m going to be the one who shows the property 99% of the time, but, you know, Catherine is going to be helping and working with our visualization team, which is out of Vancouver. And interestingly, the team that working with this time is out of Poland, right. So we’re global it here. But no one person can manage all this and do it really, really well.

D.J. Paris 12:22
Right, it takes a village. Yeah.

Haley Cutter 12:27
What I’ve recognized and even in the last year is sometimes, you know, the question will be on a pitches, well, you know, I know that you have a big team, are you going to be the only one and what my response is, is, you know, I will show your home 99% The time but but my team, we are all stronger together than we are apart. And they obviously you know, I certainly can’t speak Mandarin and Cantonese, I cannot get behind the firewall on WeChat marketing homes. So, you know, we’re really, we’re giving the benefits of all of our team members and explaining why why we work together. And you know, the CEO of a company, he’s not doing every single job, but for whatever reason, our clients but they’ve worked for a while expecting that Realtors wear all these hats.

D.J. Paris 13:12
And I teams are a relatively new phenomenon. So I guess a lot of people had the experience of I had somebody who was a realtor, they seemed it seemed like they did everything and and now we have to almost resell our clients on this team base structure. Because you’re right, there’s there’s that fear that the client is going to think I’ve become so big, and I can’t really give them the personalized attention that they think they deserve. They’re gonna feel, and you’re right. So having that answer, ready and loaded. And of course, what you say makes perfect sense.

Haley Cutter 13:43
And it really is how we operate. You know, day in and day out, if you look at the projects that we take on, we’re putting the best team in place for every project to market and sell it and we do, I’d say probably 70% of our business is on the left side and about 30% on the buyer side. But on the left side, it is so so important to have the right people in place because you know, the social media, the brochures, the lifestyle videos, writing up the narrative, this is not like one, one person is not going to be the best fit for all of that. So my team and she previously she wrote for Bravo. So when we have to write narratives and property descriptions, she’s been a writer. Yeah, I can read. It’s not going to be as good as what Jen can write. That’s the reality of it. No, I know my strengths are and I think that my job as a team lead is really to understand the strengths that my team members bring and to utilize them appropriately.

D.J. Paris 14:44
Such a great answer and it’s such an important answer and what what I what I think is because I really want to get to this idea of luxury and luxury and working developments because I was in a Having it was at a breakfast with our local association. A couple days ago, a couple 100 agents in the room, mostly younger agents not younger, so much in age, although some of them were, but certainly younger or newer to the business and the whole, we had some speakers, some top Realtors here in Chicago, who were talking about luxury luxury rentals in this case, and the room was packed and standing room only because everybody who isn’t in luxury, who’s new to the business goes, I want to be in luxury. Can we dispel some myths about being in luxury? In other words, what I want to make sure our audience understands is what it’s really like to be in to be a luxury agent to work in that space. And it you know, while it’s something that I think a lot of people aspire to, I don’t think it’s the right fit for a lot of agents, would you agree?

Haley Cutter 15:50
I would agree. And to me luxury, it’s not about $1 amount. It’s not about wealth, but it’s about living a lifestyle that you feel uniquely abundant. And so when we’re marketing a property, whether it’s a luxury property or a $500,000 property, we are giving all of our clients the same white glove service, because I think that they deserve it.

D.J. Paris 16:11
Yeah, it i Absolutely. Believe that treating, you know, each each client, the same giving them a luxury experience, not only will of course, net you referrals and repeat business, but also will attract the I have the luxury buyers and sellers to write because that’s what they’re expecting and looking for from an agent. And also I want to also real ask you about competition, because obviously, there’s a tremendous number of agents in not only just the Boston area, but in the whole state. And of course, you’re in competition, I’m sure a lot of times with particularly with listings you do 70% of your business or listings, I’m curious, how often are you up against a multiple sort of interview? Sort of experience where they’re interviewing, you know, several different teams? Is, is that a common? Is that common for you? And if if it is, how do you go about distinguishing yourself from some of the other really amazing teams in your area?

Haley Cutter 17:09
Sure. So I think that my personal business, about 70% of it right now is either repeat clients or referrals. And thankfully, we’re it’s not necessarily an interview, they want to take the time to make sure that they they get to know me, they understand the process, but usually there’s not somebody we’re competing with. When we do really, once again, I think that cutter Luxe living utilizing all of our team members best strengths and grading the best team is nobody else is doing that here in Boston right now. So we have people who are the team members, they have the same role, right? So they’re gonna go in and they both go and the photographer comps, and they’re both fair. And they both go and they do the showing, because honestly, you know, team member a and team member B, they both feel that they should be there. So but when I started to restructure and rebrand Qatar Lux living, I looked at the way how we used to do things, and I thought, how can we improve upon it. So right now, I if I’m there meeting a photographer, I do not want another member of my team to be there, I want them to be working on visualizations, doing an analysis, making phone calls, it just, it doesn’t behoove anyone. So that’s how what I see right now in the Boston marketplace is most of the teams, they’re still operating almost as one unit. But there’s two three people, and fine, like you’re brand new, and you want to shadow and of course, that’s appropriate to do so. But I, I’ve really spent a lot of time this past year, I thinking long and hard about just the utilization of time, and how we can make sure that we have time for ourselves and our self care and our families so that then we can give back and really give 200% to our clients. Because at the level that I was operating at, you know, we did 150 transactions last year, not all sales, some rentals, but it’s impossible to do all that and you know, have an amazing family life and, you know, see your friends and enjoy hobbies, and all those things are really, really important. So just trying to do things a little differently this year.

D.J. Paris 19:16
I think it makes so much sense. You’re right. There are so many teams that currently exist that are really just a bunch of individual agents that get together. They keep doing their individual business, and I’m not here to say there’s anything wrong with that. Not at all. That’s perfectly lovely.

Haley Cutter 19:30
And it worked. It did.

D.J. Paris 19:34
But I really think you know, what you said is so important. I think as a as a society, I think, you know, we used to think things like multitasking worked and being a jack of all trades work. And then the science is now more available to everyone that is really, really clear that it does not work as effectively if you try to do everything well. There’s just a lot of things you’re not going to be good at. And you had talked about, hey, I’m a marketing person. I’m a brand Ending I’m an I’m an advert ad person. I know that side of it. I don’t I’m not a visualizations person, you know, and I, there’s certain your

Haley Cutter 20:09
I understand it. But you know, my time is not best spent doing that.

D.J. Paris 20:13
Right? Yeah. So I almost think, how did you ended up determining what was the best use of your time? Because I know right now that we have a lot of listeners who do everything themselves, and are trying to figure out, I’m not on a team, or a team structured like yours? How might somebody go about thinking, okay, maybe this part of the segment of my business isn’t the best use of my time, and not what I’m best at?

Haley Cutter 20:38
Sure. So I think for a solo agent, that the best opportunity, and the quickest would just be to outsource. So perhaps hiring on somebody to help with your marketing or administration, so start little by little, and those opportunities are available to everyone. And then I’d say if you’re a solo agent, and you’re looking to build a team, or approach it as if you’re building a business, you need a CEO, you need a CFO, you need a marketing person, you need someone who’s going to help out with a public relations, maybe maybe you just have three agents that all they do is sell and they sell really, really well. But if an event needs to be executed to promote the property, you recognize that that’s not their skill set, and you have team members that you can shift and actually in the pay accordingly.

D.J. Paris 21:19
Yeah, makes, again, makes so much sense. I am curious right now being that we’re in a shifting market, in particular, we know everyone listening, you know, pretty much everywhere in the country, here, at least the United States, we’re dealing with, of course, raising rising interest rates. So buyers price points are shifting, oftentimes not for the better. We have, of course, inventory issues, not as much on the market. And right now I imagine. There’s just a lot of client management that has to be done and expectation management and helping somebody understand the turbulence of what’s what’s happening. I’m curious on how you think about having those conversations and what you’re, you know, what you’re doing, you know, with your clients, when there’s the buyer clients, for example, which I know not isn’t the primary part of your personal business, but you know, still something you have to service and what are how are you talking to clients about gosh, guys, there’s just not much out right now. How are you educating your clients about the current conditions? So

Haley Cutter 22:25
when it comes to the buyer side, we are constantly speaking to the mortgage lenders, the banks and saying, what’s it as well as the listing agents? What’s making a difference? Why is client a getting the home over client B. And the way that offers are presented now have changed significantly in the last 12 months in the last six months, there are new vehicles and tools available to certain mortgage lenders where rather than just having a pre approval letter, you could submit an offer that’s completely gone through the underwriting process. So that did not exist, at least I’m sure Massachusetts in the pre COVID market. So it’s pretty amazing when you just look in, really these banks and these brokerages, they’re trying to figure out ways to make their clients shine and in winter homes, they know how important it is to them. So we do we stay on on top of our game, and we’re in contact with the mortgage brokers with the banks. Sometimes we’ve even asked not sometimes across the board, if we know that our clients are in a competitive situation right now, when we’re submitting the offer, we’re submitting a letter from the mortgage broker that is explaining, you know, client a has already gone completely through our underwriting process, their funds are strong, they’re putting down less, or they have more means and they’re even putting down so if something happens, and there’s an appraisal gap, so what an appraisal gap is right is if if a home right now is selling for a million, but the comps in the area really only support an $800,000 sale, then when a bank appraiser comes in he might only appraise it for $800,000. So it’s now up to the buyer to cover that difference. So we’re assuring the sellers that our clients are able to do that.

D.J. Paris 24:08
appraisal, appraisal Gap coverage is huge right now. Very common.

Haley Cutter 24:13
Absolutely. And we’re we’re setting the expectation for the buyers that this is what you need to do and right now we are in a market that in the HUD suburbs unfortunately, you’re waiving the inspection, and that’s a little scary if you don’t have any knowledge you’re not a contractor I’m not I go into home and I don’t know what’s in working order and what’s not of course, if I turn on the light and it doesn’t turn on I know it’s broken. But you know what’s going on between the walls so you know what an open house is actually the perfect opportunity if you would like to bring in an inspector your own Ah, that’s brilliant. I never thought ever it may be there’s nothing wrong with doing that. At least not here in Massachusetts. I’m sure every market is different. So I have seen in in our clients, our team members have physically brought inspectors. They’ve paid them for the day. Hey, we’re gonna go to open houses today. Please come with us. You know, no If there’s if there’s anything major, right, if it’s what’s going to nickel and dime right now, but But is this home structurally sound? Do I know what I’m getting into? Those are all really, really important questions for a buyer to ask. And they have the right to know that.

D.J. Paris 25:14
That’s a really great boy I have we’ve done almost 400 episodes, nobody has ever given that specific tip. And I want to just say it again, for anyone that might have not heard it, which was so, so smart, which is if you are in a situation where you’re having to waive the appraisal, or the inspection, you can if there’s an open house opportunity, you can just bring someone with you, do you ever get pushback from the listing agent, or, or as the listing agent and or whoever’s running the open house maybe not even aware, do you sort of do it on the quiet or

Haley Cutter 25:47
they think that they are aware, it’s not something that’s hidden. I know if we’re on the other side, we welcome it. And if I’m on the listing side, it’s not that I have a problem with an inspection, I want a buyer to go in with their eyes wide open. But the problem is, is that if you have six seven plus offers, sometimes 20 offers to wait the day or two, for the inspector to come in to get the inspection report some of those buyers, they’re going to find other places you’ve already lost them. So it really comes down to timing, the sellers just want to move fast. They want to know if it’s priced appropriately in the suburbs right now that if they go to market on a Friday, and they do open houses Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they’ll have an accepted offer, you know, early in the week, and they can they can make their next move, they can figure out where they’re going next.

D.J. Paris 26:33
It’s really interesting. Now what happens in a situation? And when I say what happens, I’m saying how do you, I would think a big fear as an agent would be when you aren’t able to bring an inspector and appraiser to an open house, maybe there just isn’t an open house opportunity. And you’re not able to get someone in there to really look but you do have to make that concession on on the offer, because you’re competing with other people that have already made that concession. So if that comes up, does that ever come up? And if so, how would you talk to the client, because now the client might have some additional fear about gosh, now I’m really not going to know what I’m getting into?

Haley Cutter 27:10
Sure. So maybe at that point, just go in with your eyes extremely wide open. If this is an older home, you know, look in the basement, look for signs of water damage, look for signs of termites, for any kind of you know, rodents, bugs, etc. Take pictures, open the bulkhead. If it’s a newer home, you know constructed here in the last 10 years, I worry less about that. But once again, just go in with your eyes wide open and look less at the shiny fixtures, the lights, the appliances, but but really the structure of the home, you want to make sure that the property that you’re purchasing is structurally sound. And if it’s not that you have a good understanding of the cost that it’s going to take to get it there.

D.J. Paris 27:51
Yeah, and I also think too, I’m curious to get your thoughts that if you’re a solo practitioner, and you’re not yet super familiar with what inspectors and appraisers actually look at, structurally, go, go hang out with one for a day or spend some time with them or pay them for their time and say, Hey, in case I can’t get a hold of you, or I need to just you know, if I’m not able to bring you here somewhere, what are like 10 things I should be looking for every time I go into a home. And I imagine that would be a great little just series of things that every agent should learn?

Haley Cutter 28:21
Of course, yeah, that’s a good question. You know, what I’m gonna call Lenny Lucario. To be sure and ask him he’s the best right now is, you could if you wanted to hire inspector to go out with you for a few hours on a Saturday morning, they have time right now, it was interesting, at the beginning of COVID, you could not book an inspector, they were just so booked. But now with everybody waiving the inspection, they are available, they would be more than happy to spend a morning you know, an evening going to some open houses with a potential buyer.

D.J. Paris 28:48
I mean, I would pay somebody $500 for a few hours of their time to do that, because it would it’ll end up it’ll end up just differentiating myself from all the other agents that exist. I want to talk about balance because you had mentioned this earlier. So we’re gonna I’m gonna change topics because so many of I, you know, I don’t have children, I don’t I have a girlfriend who lives with me. But that’s the extent of my account my complicated family life. But of course, you have children, you have a husband, you have a career not only as an agent, but as a as an as a managing broker, as a team leader. And then of course, your own individual business. How do you what what do you do to stay balanced so that you’re not burning the candle at both ends? And you know, being that you want to be there of course, for your family and for your team? And for your clients? How do you figure out how to how to structure all of that? Sure. So

Haley Cutter 29:41
no one’s perfect. And this is definitely an area that that I I worked at, I work every single day, but I do get up really early. I take time for myself in the morning. So I tend to rise about five o’clock and if I’m not going to work out Pilates or yoga then I’m just taking a nice walk in in my neighborhood and clearing my head so that when my children get up and really start their day, and they’re running, and they’re crazy, and they’re active, because they’re nine and 11, then I have the the energy and the mindset to welcome that. Whereas if I was just waking up at the same time as them, I wouldn’t have a chance to reset and refresh.

D.J. Paris 30:18
That’s a good point. So you’re like a big fan. For anyone listening? There’s a great book that a lot of realtors have read called the Miracle Morning. It’s not a specifically a real estate related book, but it is about how to take those first hours of the day for yourself. And, and, and do that before the chaos all begins. I’m curious about boundaries. And when I mean boundaries, I don’t mean personal boundaries more about work boundaries. So for you only because this question comes up so often, you know, if you get a text from a client late in the evening, do you have do you have special rules around? You know, if it’s after a certain time I, you know, I don’t worry about it, or are you Uh, hey, no matter if I’m awake, I’m responding. You know, what are your thoughts about

Haley Cutter 31:01
it, I’ll respond, but I also go to bed really early. And my team members know that. So sometimes, if they’re texting at 9pm, I might be up. But by 930, I’m asleep. And I’m up really early in the morning, I have a lot of responsibilities. And I don’t feel guilty about that.

D.J. Paris 31:16
No, and nor should you, I just think it can be very difficult for agents sometimes to feel like it’s okay to tell their clients, hey, I’m available from, you know, usually from this time to this time, if I’m up, I’ll certainly respond after that, if I’m not first thing in the morning. But so many agents have a hard time setting those boundaries with their clients. Do you feel that that’s appropriate to, to set expectations early on with the client so that they’re so that their expectations are, are in alignment with what you’re able to provide? Thank you.

Haley Cutter 31:47
And I know a lot of brokers that will say I’m available between x and x time. And if you set that if you set the framework in the beginning, then I don’t foresee any problems with a client. Yeah. That’s what I think I could get better at. And I noticed that sometimes people say like, oh, I respond to emails between X and X hours. I like the idea of it practically, I have not been able to find a way to make it work. But who knows, maybe one day

D.J. Paris 32:12
I I’m laughing because I have the same problem. I’m like, I know I shouldn’t be checking my emails all day long. I know, it’s not good use of my time. But it’s it’s addictive. And it feels good to immediately respond.

Haley Cutter 32:24
I don’t want to call these nines, like when I fall behind that gets overwhelming. Yeah, if I can just keep up throughout the course of the day, and it’s okay.

D.J. Paris 32:33
Well, I have a question I’m going to ask. And then before you answer, I want to I have to do a quick sponsorship read. But my question is about team members now. And I know you have a large team. And when you think about adding a team member, I’m curious to know what qualities and somebody you’re looking for not so much their skills, because obviously you’re going to you pick people with very specific skills. I’m more interested in qualities, because I am sure so many agents want to work with your team want to join your team, you guys are one of the most successful teams in all of Massachusetts. So I’m curious on what you look for, because I think that’ll help. And again, you’re you’re one team and there’s millions of teams that look for different things. But I’m curious on the qualities you look for in a in somebody that you’re considering to join your team. And I think that will help our audience understand what somebody at your level might be interested in. But before we do that, I want to take pause for a quick moment to talk about our episode sponsor. It’s one of my favorite companies out there in the real estate tech space, which is called follow up boss. And after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors all over the country for this podcast, the CRM that is talked about by more of our guests than any other Believe it or not, it is follow up boss and let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time with less effort and don’t take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the United States for real estate agents use his follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss also integrates with 250 existing external systems. So if you’re already using other pieces of technology for your real estate business, no problem follow up boss integrates with them you keep those tools too. But here’s the best part. Follow up boss has seven day a week support. We know real estate happens at nights and weekends right so they are available so you’ll get the help you need when you need it. Get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM and for a limited time, they are offering keeping it real podcast listeners a 30 day free trial which is twice as much time as they give everybody else. So oh and by the way, no credit card required. So they are so confident you’re going to keep using their systems and you will once you try it that you’ve they’re gonna give you 30 free days and then they’re going to ask for payment if you want to keep going but only if you visit the special link which is follow up boss.com forward slash real file Follow Up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial, follow up like a boss with follow up, boss. And now back to our question. So when you’re looking to expand your team, what qualities do you look for in an agent?

Haley Cutter 35:16
So first and foremost is character, because if I’m bringing somebody onto my team, then they are indirectly but also directly linked to me. So that that is the number one trait that I am looking for in an agent. We want people who are go getters and are gonna go the extra mile, roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, it’s not all what you see on selling sunset and the stiletto heels and walking around and pointing out the attributes of a condo, we’ve sold nine and a half million dollar condos, they’re beautiful, that’s great. But that probably is 1% of what we’re doing on any given day. So sometimes we’re moving furniture, and we might be moving furniture up the stairs. So it’s, it’s not all glitz and glam. And you have to work really, really hard and be willing to put your time in. Also, our team, we are large right now. And it’s extremely important to me that any new team member that we bring on has compatible. It really is competitive with our team has complementary skill sets isn’t directly competing with anybody. And it’s going to fit in and feel welcome. So something that we’ve done in this didn’t exist initially. But now if anybody does want to join our team, and initially I’ll have a conversation and interview, if you will. And if I think that the person would be a good fit for our team, our next step is that they come in and they attend one of our team meetings. So we meet at 11 o’clock every Wednesday on Newbury Street, it’s the one time that I’m in the Boston office, because otherwise I’m just running around home to home, showing and selling and everything else. So it’s a good opportunity. And we roundtable it’s really fun. Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. And, you know, first is just, you know, observe, see what’s going on? Like, does this seem too crazy for you? Or is it like these people? I like them that are my tribe, you know, where do you feel? And then after that the team, we as a team, not just me, but it’s Hey, you know, Sarah came in? And what does everybody think? Do we think that she’d be a fit? And the Fit goes two ways, too, right? So if we feel you’re a fit, like you also have to feel that you’re fit. And then we’re taking it even a step further. And until we formally onboard anyone, we’ll have a trial. So based on what’s going on, if someone’s traveling, maybe it’s a little extended, if they’re going to spend a lot of time with us, maybe it’s long. But that’s an opportunity for you to come in to go to our events shadow me or any of the team members on listings to help out and and then feel like is does this feel right for you? Because it’s so important right now that the team members we’re bringing in, we need we need the team to be strong. We’re currently strong. And we just want to make sure that if we’re adding it’s the right person, and it’s the right fit. We’re not putting on a team member just to get your ear, you know, you’re, what $10 million in sales that that’s, that’s irrelevant.

D.J. Paris 38:14
It’s irrelevant, and it doesn’t help the team necessarily,

Haley Cutter 38:17
it doesn’t. Do you have a skill that you can offer that we do not have? So when Catherine came in, and she could speak Cantonese, and Mandarin, and she has an amazing background, and she’s posting things on WeChat, that’s something that I can’t contribute. But that alone would not have got Katherine on our team, the fact that she fit in and everybody felt that are comfortable with her that she was willing to do anything like that’s what got her hired.

D.J. Paris 38:43
Yeah, it’s everything you said, just makes so much sense. And it’s a really great education for our listeners who are thinking about approaching a team and saying, Hey, I would like to, to work with you, I, I love this idea of you know, once they sort of get the initial Hey, we like this person, then it’s like, Okay, we’re gonna try, we’re gonna do a trial period. And that probably weeds out a lot of people as well, because there’s just not as many agents that are willing to do that. And I think that’s a really smart way to make sure that you have somebody who’s committed serious, coachable, because you’re doing your you’re making sure that that those people best represent Luxe living.

Haley Cutter 39:24
And probably the final step to as if somebody shadowed for a month plus whatever we feel is appropriate, if I’ll sit down with them, and I’m not just asking them what their goals and expectations are. I’m asking them what the goals and expectations are for me and for the team. Because I do not want to be bringing anybody on that I’m not meeting their goals and expectations. And I think that that’s a really important question that often is not asked. And I don’t even know if the agents Give It Thought until you ask. Because if somebody was expectation of me is that every morning, you know, we’re going to have a phone call for An hour, and then we’re going to recap for an hour in the evening. I apologize that I just don’t have time for that. Right? Right. But if it’s like once a week, we want to sit down, you want to do goal setting, if they want the opportunity to shadow, great, I’ll let you know. But but sometimes somebody might come in and they think in their head that their goals and expectations are going to be met by you, as a team lead or by other team members. And I just want to be sure that we’re all on the same page. You know, we take the professional photos, we have the ads and all the publications, the last thing I want is to put something out there, and then somebody’s you know, no, no longer part of the team.

D.J. Paris 40:34
Sure. I think you said something really, also really important, which is agents, you can ask those team leaders, hey, here’s what I’m looking to accomplish. You know, can you help me get there, as opposed to saying, here’s why I’d be a great fit for your team, which of course, you shouldn’t say as well, but also say, here’s what I’m looking for. And I’m really looking to accomplish this. Can you help me do XY and Z, and I imagine, you know, you get calls from from agents who are just looking for lead source and are unable to do that on their own. And so they’re like, Well, if I join a team, I might get some leads. But until you understand what that person really needs, and you you might not be willing or able to do that. But a lot of times you’re right, the agent doesn’t say, here’s what I need, right? There needs to be a fit. I think that’s really important is ask for what you need. And in you know, it’s okay. If the I mean, it’s like I, we get these calls, too, because I handle people who are interested in joining our firm, and we get that question a lot. I always say what are you looking for? What do you want in a firm? And if they immediately it’s like, Oh, I really need a lot of leads. I’m like, we are not the right fit. I wish we I wish we could do that. But the truth is, we don’t. And I’d rather you know that right now. And then otherwise join us. And then you know, photos, all the all of the things and then you’re like, oh, that person isn’t happy here and they leave or we’re not happy with them. And I would love to talk with the last thing I want to talk about is something you said earlier, which is about your referral. 70% of your business is referral repeat, you know, a business. What are you doing? This is what I’m always interested in, after the sale. What are you and your team doing to stay in touch with? With clients? Maybe they just bought a home and you’re like this person and this is their forever home? Or this? They’re going to be there for a long time? What are you doing to still stay, at least in the back of someone’s mind as they progress when they’re not needing your services right away?

Haley Cutter 42:33
Sure. So for us, it’s always relationship, not a transaction. So when the home has closed for still, we’re going to call we’re going to send cards, we do a weekly newsletter. And that’s just an opportunity for us to be top of mind. And sometimes if a client purchases in downtown Boston, they might not know that we have two new listings coming on and dentists on Cape Cod, but when they get our newsletter, they’re like, oh my gosh, really? I didn’t know that you service that. And you know what? My brother? He’s thinking of buying a house on the cake? Can you help him? So it’s little things like that. So some of it is just putting them on the newsletter list. And of course, if somebody wants to unsubscribe, it’s their right to do so. Please, by all means do but most people say how much they enjoy it. Yeah, and just if you were calling them, you know, every day, you’re not going to call them every day. But you know, maybe pick up the phone every few months. Or if you know that somebody really enjoys baseball, when the season starts, they like oh my gosh, you want on the baseball game? Like let’s meet up. Just keep it real. And don’t be fake about it.

D.J. Paris 43:34
I think that’s right. I think people can sniff out in authenticity, or non authenticity. I’m not sure what’s the proper way to say it. But But yes, I think being authentic and being gracious and also thoughtful, like in your case, every week sending them what Brian Buffini value,

Haley Cutter 43:55
they probably you know, they’re busy. They don’t want to hear from you every week. But every now and then, well, I’ve got a funny story. So go ahead. We have a client who has become a friend. But when we were initially looking for properties, and she must have purchased in Beacon Hill about five years ago now, we were touring some spectacular homes for five $6 million plus and for whatever reason in the Back Bay. A lot of the homes we went into, they were just staged a little funny. So there was this one that there was actual stuffed cats arranged on every bed with a cup fake milk in front of it. Oh, no. So she was like, oh my goodness, Haley, like, you gotta get me out of this house now like she’s flipping. He’s like, no, no, no, no, no. And they also had creepy dolls. So to this day, if she goes into a gift shop and there’s like a cat joke, like she’ll take a picture and send it to me and I’ll take a picture and send it to her. So it’s just that’s authentic. That’s real.

D.J. Paris 44:49
It is. It is funny. Realtors get to sort of see how the other half live sub dives do right. We’re like, wow, that person painted a sky on their ceiling with clouds and Okay. Hey, are there taxidermy? Yeah, it was, it was bizarre. But those those experiences really bite bind you to other people, right? Because you share that sort of intimate, funny experience. And then it becomes kind of a like a lifetime, a lifelong joke, right? Yeah.

Haley Cutter 45:18
Gifts to like, it’s not just me giving them to her, she’s giving them to me. Shared commonality,

D.J. Paris 45:25
I think it’s a great, great place to wrap up being authentic and, and having fun with with your clients and just being being yourself. And, above all, you know, you demonstrate and your team demonstrates professionalism. And I think that is, at the end of the day, what seals the deal with keeps everyone happy and wanting to work with you. Because I know there’s a lot of people I really like and I’m connected to, but I don’t trust their skill set. Right. And you guys do everything, you’re authentic. You’re a well oiled team, and you have really strong, not just you, but everyone on your team is really, really skilled. And I think I think that’s just an incredible combination. Obviously, you’re having incredible success as a result.

Haley Cutter 46:11
We also have a lot of fun along the way.

D.J. Paris 46:14
Yes, yeah, I get that as well. I totally, totally believe it. Just even looking at some of the photos, everyone in your in your staff, you can tell when people smile just for Team photos, but maybe not that way. You can see it in the photos, your photos, everyone looks legitimately happy. And you just said hanging out with everybody on Wednesdays when their team meeting. That’s a really, that’s your most fun thing to do. So, you know, boy seems like a wonderful environment. I want to to wrap up by saying if anyone out there if any of our listeners have have clients who may be vacation out in Massachusetts, of course, take QA there’s lots of wonderful places on the East Coast. Or if you have clients that are relocating to Boston or anywhere in Massachusetts, Haley and her team would love the opportunity to chat with you. Or if you just happen to be a listener and you’re not a realtor, but you live in that in the in the Massachusetts area. Or if you’re moving there, definitely check with with Qatar Lux living, they would love the opportunity to chat with you see if you’d be a good fit. And if they would be a good fit. And the best way to reach them. Obviously, you can go right to their website, which is Qatar lux.com. And that’s Lux with an E at the end Qatar lux.com. With compass in in Massachusetts. And Hailey is if anyone else is wants to reach out to you, is there a better way they should touch base? Oh, so

Haley Cutter 47:31
Haley dot cutter is my handle on Instagram as well as Facebook and or [email protected].

D.J. Paris 47:37
Wonderful. And we will have links to Haley’s Instagram and Facebook in our show notes. If you’re listening on a podcast app, just look in the show notes. And you can follow her on social and contact her that way. Haley, thank you so much. We are so grateful for your time we know how busy oh my gosh, you guys are so busy. And you took the time to really help our audience improve their business. And we are so grateful for you for that. So on behalf of the audience, we say thank you. On behalf of Haley and myself, this is actually Memorial Day weekend when we’re recording. So Haley, I want to hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. Also hope all of our audience enjoys the holiday. By the time most of you here this Memorial Day be long gone. But I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and we will see everybody on the next episode. Oh, one last thing please tell a friend about this episode. Think of one other agent that in your office that you know that could benefit from hearing this great conversation with Haley send them a link to it. You know there’s a million ways to do that. So please let them know about our show. Haley, thank you so so much and we will say thank you so grateful to have you and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks anyway. Thank you bye guys.

Elizabeth Averyanova the founder of Studio Classica talks about her background and how she got into brand management. Elizabeth also discusses talks about what branding is and what’s the role of the brand strategist. Last, Elizabeth discusses authenticity and picture-perfect presentation and also social media presentation and the power of videos.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Elizabeth Averyanova can be reached at [email protected].

Please follow Elizabeth on Instagram here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Have you ever wanted to explore branding or improve your branding for your real estate business? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with brand expert or branding expert I should say Elizabeth Avery a nova, who’s going to talk all about real estate broker or realtor branding, which is something that we hear a lot we have hundreds and hundreds of agents in our firm. And that is really one of the biggest questions we get is How do I brand myself better digitally. So via social or in print, and in lots of different ways. So we’re going to talk about that. But before we get to Elizabeth, just a couple of quick reminders, please tell a friend about this show. Think of one other real estate agent maybe that needs help with their branding, and send them a link to our website if they’re not a podcast person, which they can stream all of our episodes right from a browser, which is keeping it real pod.com Is our website or they could just pull up any podcast app and do a search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button and let that last thing please leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. We read every single comment. And we really want to keep getting better, right? We want to keep meeting your needs. And we need to know what your needs are. So let us know what you can do right from whatever app store you might have. Or whatever podcast directory system you might be using. So thank you for all that but enough for me. Let’s get to our main event our interview with Elizabeth Avery ANOVA.

Okay today on the show we have Elizabeth a very Nova from Studio Classica. Now let me tell you more about Elizabeth. Now Elizabeth is a brand strategist, also a digital marketing expert, a web and architectural designer. And she’s also the founder of studio Classica. Elizabeth helps purpose driven entrepreneurs and industry leaders scale their online businesses with an impactful beautiful and df y design so that they can attract dream clients elevate their online presence and book out their offers with while creating a lasting impact in the world. She has fully transformed the online presence of many real estate professionals and experts. So Elizabeth knows what it takes to stand out, attract people who want to work with you, and close more real estate transactions. Elizabeth, welcome to the show all the way from Latvia.

Elizabeth Averyanova 4:02
Thank you so much, DJ, I’m excited to talk today.

D.J. Paris 4:05
I am a marketing person at heart. And I am going to do my best to not take over this conversation because this is your episode. But I live eat and breathe marketing. My sister is a brand manager or a CMO but started off as in brand management. So this is my wheelhouse. I don’t know as much as you but I am super passionate about this. And I’m so excited to have you because I think this is a conversation that Realtors oftentimes struggle with trying to figure out what is my brand? How do I present that to my audience? How do I demonstrate who I am on social on my website, in my print advertising, you know, and so we want to have those conversations with you because this is what you do. So let’s I would love Let’s start with your background talk. Tell us a little bit about how you got into brand management.

Elizabeth Averyanova 5:05
Yeah, perfect. So, so I’m a designer, like pretty much my whole life. And actually, my background is in architecture. And from, you know, from my education in in those fields, I, you know, I started my own design business 10 years ago, where we were serving in the architecture, space and design space, and really focusing on online services and reaching people pretty much around the world, through the internet, which is amazing. And in the past two years, I really decided to focus in on the branding side of it and the marketing side of it, because I also like you, like, I love marketing, and I love figuring out online business things and, you know, tying it together to really help people connect with their ideal client and help them grow their business to a whole new level. And so that’s how I got into branding through the way of wanting to really help people who are coaches in the space or who are industry leaders who are like, you know, really changing the game in their field in their niche and real estate came about because I have a brief foray into real estate. It was my only corporate job. And it was a pretty short experience, but really amazing, which is I actually was a was a research and advisory assistant at Colliers International. I get now it was like, wow, that’s really big deal.

D.J. Paris 6:26
It is a big deal.

Elizabeth Averyanova 6:26
At the time, I was just kind of it was 10 years ago, I was a lot younger, and I was just, you know, not quite, I don’t even know how it how it came about how I got accepted to this sort of position. But I, the catch here is I was in an international office. And, you know, in Riga, Latvia, and everyone only spoke Russian and Latvian languages. I’m a native English speaker, and I didn’t speak those languages. And it was a whole different experience. But that was my first initial like, delve into real estate. And I’m really excited. Now I get to tie all these past experiences together, to you know, really focusing on a big need a big area of our niche now is helping Realtors with their branding.

D.J. Paris 7:15
Yeah, I think it’s something that we we hear a lot from our listeners, which is, hey, I, I want to really, really revamp my brand, or figure out what my brand is. And then, you know, everyone, I think always wants to start on the design with the design. So they’ll say, Oh, I like this look. But I’m curious, when you start to work with a client, like a realtor, for example, or a team, a real estate team? How do you begin to sort of help them discover their brand? And what that sort of visual aesthetic might might look like?

Elizabeth Averyanova 7:57
Hmm, yeah, so I honestly, I’m kind of contacted every single week, pretty much by a real estate agent, who’s like, I need help with branding. But you know, they’re very overwhelmed. They’re very confused, they don’t really know where to start. And the biggest thing I see is that they’re afraid to really dive into what does it mean to figure out your brand name. And you know, so I have a lot of these conversations, but a lot of people are afraid to take that step forward of figuring it out. The very when I start with clients, the first thing I really need to know are what are your goals as a real estate agent or broker or realtor? What are your goals in the next six months in the next year, and in the next five years, the clients when we see have the most success are the ones who are very clear about their goals, and creating those smart, actionable, measurable goals.

D.J. Paris 8:47
So if somebody’s goal is I want to attract more home owners that want to sell, you know, sell property, right. So I want I want more homeowners to reach out to me, you know, to to, you know, sell my property. So is that a specific enough goal? Or are how specific do people need to be do? Is it better to say, well, here’s my current business, here’s where I’d like it to grow. I’m just curious on what the what that sort of looks like.

Elizabeth Averyanova 9:19
Yeah, definitely. So you know, we, you know, sometimes we do an audit of what are people currently doing? So we do an audit of, you know, of their brand and other business, but let’s just say like you said, that example if they want to reach more, I would get much more specific of of how many people but you also want to make sure it’s a goal within your control. You know, like, you want to make 20 you want to sell 20 houses this year. It what is actually in your control with related to that goal.

D.J. Paris 9:49
Yeah, that makes sense. And, you know what, maybe we should also define what branding is, and let’s, let’s talk about what is it and strategist do so let’s first define what a brand strategist does. I think that’ll give us a good intro to sort of branding 101

Elizabeth Averyanova 10:07
Sure. So, you know, so my vision of what a brand strategist is, is, is diving into your representation on line and offline. And and you know, as a realtor, you have a very unique position where you have to show up amazing online and offline both places, you know, a lot of online entrepreneurs can get away with just showing up good online, but offline, that that is not even part of the conversation, really. So a brand strategist is somebody who really strategically knows your goals. Help helps you identify your goals, your ideal clients, and you know, what, who you want to serve and what and how you want to serve them. And it helps, and they help you bridge the gap between that and and how you show up online and offline. And, yeah, go ahead.

D.J. Paris 10:58
No, I think that’s important because Realtors do struggle with that. So the thought is, okay, you know, look, I have this professional presence. And we have this social media, these social media platforms that enable me to show my professional life as well as maybe my personal life. And I know realtors are always sort of trying to figure out, how do I, how do I stay on brand another way? Let’s let’s first, you know, what actually, I’d like to talk about is determining one’s brand. Can you talk about how you determine what somebody’s brand is?

Elizabeth Averyanova 11:39
So yeah, well, we can, you know, everybody’s definition of branding is different. But I like to see that branding is simply an extension of who you are. And it will just be professionally who you are and, and how you are showing up online. So branding does go beyond the visual side of things. It also includes the visual side of of your brand’s colors, fonts, that your overall style, but I think it also combined, the way you talk as much as you know, the way you talk. So your language, your your it also ties in your values and your mission. And your your vision for yourself and your business. And it ties in all these pieces and your brand, is it’s kind of a fancy word, but it’s extension of who you are, and how you want to serve the world.

D.J. Paris 12:29
That’s really important. And I think this idea of how do I want to serve the world is is so critical, because the branding ultimately dictates not just the look and the feel of the materials that realtors will put out there, whether their digital assets like social media posts, or their you know, maybe, you know, physical print assets. So it’s, it’s I know, we think a lot about well, I want my brochures to look a certain way I want my flyers to look a certain way I want my website to look a certain way. But really what we’re talking about is demonstrating some sort of lifestyle, right, and I don’t mean lifestyle in, it has to be like a luxurious lifestyle. But But there has to be some intentional thought about what realtors are putting out whatever content they’re putting out, whether it’s social media, or web, or website content, or print content, it has to be all aligned. Is that accurate?

Elizabeth Averyanova 13:29
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So, you know, the biggest thing I see is that the there’s a real lack of consistent consistency in how people are showing up in the online space. And it’s, it’s, you know, I, you sometimes feel like, Oh, it’s a saturated market, maybe you and there’s a lot of real estate agents, but you know, there are a lot of realtors who are not doing it well. And I honestly think it’s not that hard to take some time, put some intention into it, and you will immediately stand out, you know, be that you’ll be in that 1% of visually sitting out with a solid brand. Well, let’s

D.J. Paris 14:09
talk about maybe what real estate agents aren’t doing well. So when you’re exploring the landscape, what are some and again, obviously, this is not black and white. This is good, this is bad, but what are some things that you see that are either inconsistent or maybe not hitting the mark? Not hitting the intended sort of audience result?

Elizabeth Averyanova 14:33
Mm hmm. Yeah. So I spend a lot of time auditing people’s brands and I you know, what that means is I go to your Instagram for me, I you know, my age or my just whatever, that’s the platform I use. Typically that’s the number one thing I go to to find people that I want to work with is Instagram. You know, so maybe your audience, maybe you have to figure out maybe your artist is on Facebook, or maybe your audience is on LinkedIn, and really knowing who you’re serving and where do they where they hang out, is important. So for me, I hang out on Instagram if you if you need to know. So I go and look at other realtors on Instagram and what that means I go look at their profile, and they want that first, in first impression that I get is oftentimes like kind of kind of confused, I’m not really sure, you know what they do visually, it’s not appealing. And you know, in real estate, you want to make things really appealing to the buyer to the sellers, right? Like, you really need that first impression to be good. And so on Instagram, I see very inconsistent posts, or maybe they’re taking templates from totally different sources. We can talk about Canva. But Canva is a design tool that you know, a lot of realtors use for graphics. And there’s a lot of templates on there that are free and great. But the minute you start to mix them all together, it just looks kind of like music. So you know, that’s one the very first mistakes I often see. The next one is, what if I want to work with you, or I want to figure out more what you do. And there’s that link in the bio of Instagram. And when I click that link, what happens? Where does it take me. So a lot of times they see that it takes you to a link tree, it’s like a service link tree. So you click the link, and it’s a link tree. So then more links appear. You know, I see them the default style, they’re not branded, they’re not consistent with your look, or they’re like really funky colors. You know, so So what I’m so what I do when I’m auditing is I go through that experience of clicking through to the next step to the next step until I try to figure out okay, how can I contact you? How can I work with your How can I see your website, and that map that journey, you know, that’s your client experience? So if I’m confused, somebody’s confused or overwhelmed, or they’re like, Am I in the right place, you know that I clicked the right link, and it doesn’t look consistent, that you’re gonna lose your clients that

D.J. Paris 17:15
way. I think that’s really important because a lot of us just post content on social media as one off content without a clear, objective, right. So we, we might put a really beautiful post together, but we’re just putting it there. And that’s really just step one. And not if you don’t think through, you know, and it doesn’t not that every post on Facebook or Instagram has to have an action step. But if you do have an action step, like you were saying about link tree, so this is a very common thing that people put in their Instagram bio is in particular, our link tree is what is a link tree, a link tree is really a series of So Instagram only allows you to put one link in your bio. So because of that there’s a link tree is a free service where people are I think there’s a pay service as well. But people can basically put a series of different links when you click on that link. And it shows up as different, like action steps, essentially. I’m curious what your thoughts are about link trees in general? Because I Yes, I see that they could be very valuable, but you have to be really intentional about it. But do you like Link trees in Instagram profiles? Or would you prefer just one link going one place, and not a second? Now I have because what happens when you click on a link tree or tap on a link tree is now you have maybe six or seven or 10 additional buttons that you now have to read through to click curious what your thoughts are just in general about link tree.

Elizabeth Averyanova 18:44
Okay, so thank you for explaining link tree and and my mission is to abolish it from any any client that works. Thought you might say that link tree. So I’ve

D.J. Paris 18:58
The reason being that you don’t like Link tree is what.

Elizabeth Averyanova 19:01
So I’ve gotten rid of quite a few of my clients link trees. If you listen to this, you’ll know. But one is it’s sitting your earned traffic. So you’ve earned the attention of potential client is sending those people to a platform that’s not your platform. So it’s sending it to a link trees platform is for example, it’s not sending it to your website platform where they could dive deeper into you. So they’re just sent a link tree. So I don’t like that. That’s one reason. The other reason is you can look because

D.J. Paris 19:31
you could lose people because they could get overwhelmed by the sheer number of options you have. And so there’s it’s it’s not a great I guess what I was getting at I’m curious to get your thoughts. I don’t find that like when I when I hit a link and it goes to a link tree. I get sort of turned off as a consumer I just started go. Now I have to make another decision and I have to read through all these button options. I don’t really want to do that.

Elizabeth Averyanova 19:58
Yeah, and so that’s the Second is that there’s too many choices. And I mean, not that you don’t have to do that. But there are a lot a lot of choices. And oftentimes I see that the specific text that the description that people use on those buttons are very unclear and really make you think and like you said, you don’t, you don’t want to do that. So you have to the language is not clear. It’s not actionable, like, what is what’s going to happen then. So that’s a mistake I see. And then it just number three is just, this is not always a branded experience for your clients.

D.J. Paris 20:31
Yeah, and that’s true, it’s not. And I think if you are going to use a link tree, as a realtor, you’d want to have just a couple of options. One would be I’m thinking about buying a home, I’m thinking about selling a home, I’m thinking about, you know, or I’m thinking about moving or you want them to be super descriptive, but we can move on from link tree, but but I just see it as so common and so popular. And again, we just what I love, Elizabeth, about what you said is that your job is to take the journey of a consumer, and basically be the consumer go through the experience and find things that could be modified and changed and shore, the shore and beat to make things more direct, more simple, and to give the client the actual experience that they want. Right. So let’s talk about a little bit about what good so we know that there’s a there’s a lot of problems with realtors just posting half Hazzard, images, videos, there’s no consistency. How important by the way is consistency in the visual. So the aesthetic, the vision that there’s consistency in the look, and also in the, the frequency. So I’m curious about frequency, because that’s another thing we hear on the podcast is how often should I be posting? And I know there isn’t a magical answer, but how important is the consistency from the from the style and design to the actual frequency? Mm hmm.

Elizabeth Averyanova 22:03
Yeah. So, you know, it’s as important as you want to make it and the reason you would want to be consistent, and you would want to post regularly, and by that I would mean at least once a week, but more like Lehigh higher volume, so two or three times a week, and that you consistently show up in your audience’s, you know, feed on their social platform, or in their inbox. If you’re, if you happen to be sending emails out on an email list, you both of these things are important, because then you start to gain recognition. Visually, people start to recognize you. Oh, that’s, you know, this post. Yeah, that’s her look, that’s Oh, you they don’t even have to spend, you know, more than a mil set a couple of milliseconds, saying, Oh, I know who was post that is, I’m gonna check it out. Because she always provides really high value, or he always gives really great tips about this or that. And so is she, you know, showing up consistently, you start to build that recognition. So you build that that no factor, you always hear about know, like, trust factor, but you build that no fat, no factor. So people start to know you, and start to build up that trust in you. Over time, when they’re ready for your services, you keep showing up, you’re gonna stay top of mind.

D.J. Paris 23:29
Yeah, you came from the architecture world. And we’re here in Chicago, one of the most prolific sort of architects here in Chicago’s history is Mies van der Rohe, who has a very specific style. And you can essentially, from a branding perspective, all of the buildings are I think, I’m not familiar with everything, he’s dead, but for the buildings, I know that he did, they’re all a very specific style, there are very specific brand. And you can look at these buildings here. And if you’re a Chicago person that’s listening, you know, what we’re talking about, because they have a very specific brand and style. And, you know, and so I’m curious, you know, just thinking about you in the architecture world. How can how can an agent because what you really want is you want somebody to look at something and immediately know that that’s you, right? Like, we want somebody to associate a certain look a certain feel a certain style to to a broker or to to a realtor. How should they start that journey? What’s the what’s the first thing that an agent should do to really start down the sort of branding, you know, exercise path?

Elizabeth Averyanova 24:47
Hmm, okay, so you made a really good analogy with architecture and you know it Chicago has a number of amazing architects in history and I love the history of Chicago, but Oh, The you want that moment that instantly they can recognize you. So it could be visually, but it also could be a specific color that people see that color. And they always think of you. Or it could even be a specific word or like a phrase. And they they think of you, you know, I have a client. You know, for example, like if I think of the word remarkable, or I think of like a deep, like a kind of a deep red color. We have a client, we work with Mark Kilimanjaro,

D.J. Paris 25:28
who has been

Elizabeth Averyanova 25:31
amazing. Yeah, I instantly think of her you know, so that is brand recognition. It can be a color or a word or something. So you have to think about you and what, what, you don’t need to think of 10 things, but it really is what it can be that one thing that is extension of who you are, what you like, and also relates to your ideal client was what can be the one thing that’s part of your brand?

D.J. Paris 25:56
And how would somebody determine, you know, what, or what’s a way somebody could determine what that one thing is? If somebody says, I don’t really know, you know, Marquis lemons, you mentioned has remarkable that’s her. Remarkable, right. That’s her. That’s her, her brand. And, and it works. But if for somebody that doesn’t have that, how would you suggest that they might go about figuring out what their brand is?

Elizabeth Averyanova 26:19
Hmm. Okay. There’s, I think, at least two questions. But you could ask yourself one question, which is, if you had the perfect birthday celebration, what would that look like for you? You know, maybe that’s, you know, a quiet evening with just your family, you know, with a with a glass of wine, and it’s very, you know, peaceful, maybe outdoor dinner with candle lights? Or maybe it’s a more like, outgoing type of party at night in the city, you know, what is? What would be your your birthday party? That’s one way to figure out, start to figure out your personality. Another question would be if you didn’t have, you know, all the work tasks on your to do list in your planner today, what would you spend your day doing? And think about that? And no, these are questions just to really start to dig in your personality. And, and, you know, we all we’re all multi passionate people, but that, you know, what is the one recurring theme that keeps coming up? If you’re more visual, and you just feel like, okay, I want to choose a specific color. You can say, when you go to your closet, what’s the number one color you see? For me, I have like a very neutral like monochrome, clean white style, I opened my closet, it’s 90% white clothes.

D.J. Paris 27:40
Right, that’s, that’s your look, you’re you, you enjoy monochrome. And, you know, we, you know, you also talked about what we’re really talking about, I think is authenticity. How important is it in real estate? Well, look, I mean, for being honest, authenticity for realtors has not always been a top priority. In the marketing side, right? We take pictures, and we Photoshop them so that we all look perfect, we erase wrinkles, we look younger, you know, we we want to demonstrate perfection in the photos of the listings that we have, we want to artificially fix problems. How important is authenticity? And when I mean authenticity, I mean showing some of the cracks, showing some of the faults, the fault lines, right the imperfections? Is it okay to show imperfections in and does do our audience? Do our audience want to see imperfection? Or do they expect everything to look perfect?

Elizabeth Averyanova 28:46
Well, absolutely, they just want to see real life, your real life. You don’t have to expose everything of course, but you know, they want to see reality more than the perfect world you know, that’s that’s absolutely I think it’s a non negotiable at this point when we all have smartphones all connected 24/7 And you know that yes, there’s filters on Instagram and those are great, but they really you really just need to show up who you are and not not change that.

D.J. Paris 29:18
I think that’s a really good point. So I know sometimes people feel insecure about you know, doing video or making you know, oh, I don’t know how to edit correctly or I don’t have the right lighting. But I My experience has been that as long as you’re providing quality content. You know, that sort of Trumps some of the imperfections maybe with editing or with shooting the you know, or even just taking a you know, an image

Elizabeth Averyanova 29:49
I think if you’re stuck in that, I don’t know how phase you know, go there are solutions out there. You don’t need to know all the answers because there are people teaching how to make Instagram reels for you know, as a real estate agent, we just created a course one of our clients created a course on how to how to master reels. You know, if you don’t know the how you don’t figure it, you can figure that out. But the best thing is just start posting and start getting out there and start getting that connection with with your audience.

D.J. Paris 30:20
I want to I want to talk about studio Classica. This is your company. And it’s Studio classica.com. And in Studio C L A s s I see a.com Let’s talk about this and what you do for for realtors I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode.

Elizabeth Averyanova 31:56
Okay, yeah, absolutely. So we you know, we. So we help real estate agents show up more professionally online. And you know, even in offline space, too, but but mainly in the online space, because that’s where people are searching. And that’s where if you keep showing up regularly on social media, in a branded, elevated, beautiful way, then, like we said earlier, your clients start to recognize you. And they you stay top of mind. And when they’re ready to sell their home or buy a home, you’ve stayed in their mind, and they will reach out to you or they’ll reach out to your real estate team. And so we help we especially help real estate, men, real estate leaders in the space who who wants to start helping other real estate agents. So a big part of who we help is people who want to teach, teach how to build a successful real estate business, or how to add six figures to your real estate income in the next year. And so that teaching mentality that mentorship or if you know, people who want to create courses, and even if you don’t feel like you’re big in your field, yet we have, you know, people rising like rising leaders who they they’re ready to create a course because they start to get a lot of the same questions from their agents or from, you know, from people online. And that’s a sign that you can package up that knowledge you have that some specific niche of real estate. And there are other people out there who want to learn from you.

D.J. Paris 33:27
Yeah, that makes sense. And I mean, you can basically so when people when agents work with you, when Realtors work with you, they you can build them websites, you can work with their social media posts. Tell us some of the services that you assist with.

Elizabeth Averyanova 33:43
Yeah, perfect. Yes, absolutely. So we help, you know, figure out your branding. So figure out you know, the brand strategy, but also the visual side of it. So the visual social media posts, your your profile headers on Facebook or LinkedIn. You know, we make sure it’s consistent everywhere you want to show up online. We, for example, create social media templates that then you can use and carry forward. Usually, we do that as part of a branding package. From there, we often build like your complete website, which is your personal brand website. I know a lot of real estate people have a website that there’s sort of given. And I generally think those are not so functional, especially if you’re trying to really build your personal brand and your identity in this space. So we build your custom website. And then from there, oftentimes we build, you know, for those who want to teach, we would build the courses or membership spaces in the online space. So a full branding and design services.

D.J. Paris 34:41
Yeah, it makes it makes perfect sense. And so you know, I would What are a couple tips that you have for anyone that is out there that is thinking of redesigning their site, redesigning some of their colors. What’s what’s in right now. What what did the public want to see when they’re hitting a website or social media? Like what are some aesthetic sort of trends that you know that are, would be helpful for our audience to know. Mm hmm.

Elizabeth Averyanova 35:13
So, you know, aesthetic trends I see are incorporating videos into your website and into your definitely into your social media. But if we focus on the website, you know, tying in video to your website, whether that’s sort of a video background that’s professionally filmed, or if it’s just a video of you sitting down in front of a camera, get a nice background, and, you know, talk about, you know, a two minute three minute clip about, about what you’re doing who you help, and including that sort of video, someone on your website, that video is a huge way to connect, you know, and really accelerate that that connection with somebody watching it. And you can really, you know, accelerate the speed at which they’re, they get to know you or feel like they know you. Because, you know, for example, we you know, I have a video somewhere in my in my onboarding process, when we start new clients, I have a video somewhere there. And people will feel like that people have told me Oh, I feel like I already know you already talk to you, even though we haven’t talked yet. So just bridges that gap.

D.J. Paris 36:22
Isn’t that ultimately the goal? Right? If if it’s a stranger, who doesn’t has not actually met the agent yet? If they can say, Gosh, I feel like I know you? That’s that’s a huge victory, isn’t it?

Elizabeth Averyanova 36:39
Hmm. So So the video is, you know, it was trending from 2020. But it’s not going away. So get on the video, bandwagon is the number one.

D.J. Paris 36:50
Yeah, start start making video. And I think we’re so lucky to have devices, you know, in our pockets at all times that produce high quality, at least recording. And we have the ability to produce content that our audience wants very inexpensively. But the if you really want to take it to the next level, you really need somebody to look, I was I’ll give you a really simple example, I I’ve been a writer for a long time. And I when I write a piece for a publication, I work and rework it and rewrite it and rewrite it, I think it looks perfect, then I send it off to an editor, and it comes back looking totally different. And the editors job is to make it look better for the audience that it’s going to be read by. And I am always like, I’m going to send this off to the editor, they’re going to send it back without any changes, and they’re gonna go wow, DJ, you are brilliant. This is just gonna go, we’re going to publish this just as you wrote it. And it’s never happened. They always rewrite it. And they always make it better. And my point by saying that is yes, you can put up all your own posts, you can use Canva. As we mentioned earlier, it’s a great tool. There’s lots of really neat functionality there. And it’s awesome. But you probably should run it through and not through an editor. Somebody like Elizabeth Pryor? Because she’s going to make everything look the right way. And, and and that’s, you know that that’s really important. And how important is it to have to have somebody like that, you know, to edit to be your consistency editor, I guess I would say,

Elizabeth Averyanova 38:34
hmm, yeah, I think if you’re serious about building successful business, about growing your real estate business, you know, is deaf, I’m totally biased, but it’s worth the investment to, you know, run it through professional like work with a professional for a period of time to get that visual look at that brand figured out. Because it is going to change the game and you showing up for your clients, you’re going to feel more confident putting those posts out on social media and you’re going to feel you know, much more direction and who you’re helping and how you’re going to show up online. And it will pay back dividends in your return on your investment. You know what you get, you know, you’re gonna hit to hit your goals because you’re you’re determined to do that, and you’re serious about it. So I think it’s a game changer, really.

D.J. Paris 39:24
And for everyone listening, the reason why we had Elizabeth on is she and her team have do incredible, absolutely incredible work. I really encourage everyone listening to visit Elizabeth’s website, just take a look at what she does for realtors and other other brands that she works with. It’s really remarkable. And notice as you look through some of her work, how you feel, as you’re perusing the different websites that they’ve created different brands that they’ve worked With notice the feeling that comes through. And if that resonates with you, if you go, Gosh, I want people when they visit me digitally online, whether it’s on social media or on my own website, if I want my clients to have a similar experience, I would encourage you, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Reach out to Elizabeth, she is awesome. She’s worked with some of the top Realtors in the country. She’s worked with people that have been on our show. And that’s why we have her on the show because she is so highly recommended. But I want everyone to visit her website, which is Studio classica.com. By the way, we have a link to that in the show notes. So if you’re listening on a podcast app, just look in the show notes for studio Classica. But you can visit it yourself to studio classic cut a at the end studio classic cut.com. And take a look at what they do. It is absolutely remarkable. It’s clean. It’s minimal. It’s absolutely on trend. I am Elizabeth’s like biggest fan. Because when you look at what she does, it is absolutely just such a clean and beautiful aesthetic. And she can help you do that. You don’t have to figure out how to do that yourself. By the way, creating clean, minimal, beautiful content is not easy. That’s why you hire somebody like Elizabeth, it’s actually difficult to do. So that’s why you hire her. But Elizabeth, you know, this is a perfect time to sort of wrap up our episode because I want everyone to go visit your website. And then I want everyone to reach out to Elizabeth to if you’re looking to hire a branding expert, I will tell you, branding is one of the most important parts of your marketing strategy. It’s oftentimes overlooked. In fact, it’s almost always overlooked, because we just want to put out content. But if there’s no intention behind it, if there’s no cohesive strategy, you’re really going to run into some challenges. Hire somebody like Elizabeth, I really, really encourage you to do that. So Elizabeth, what’s the best way somebody should reach out to you if they want to work with you?

Elizabeth Averyanova 42:02
Well, thank you so much, DJ. And if you are thinking about what can we do with your branding or your website, the best way to reach out is, of course, our websites to classic.com. And we you know, go to our services page. And you can check out what more about what we do and check out our packages, you know how we can work together?

D.J. Paris 42:22
Yeah, I really encourage our all of our listeners to check it out. And I wish I wish you were an advertiser of ours because I am so passionate about your work. And maybe one day you will be but but for now I really encourage our audience to check it out. Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for being on our show. We are We are honored to have you. And for everyone out there visit Studio classical.com. Please also tell a friend about this podcast. Think about one other agent in your office that needs help with their branding send them a link to this episode. They can find us at keeping it real pod.com all of our episodes are there can be downloaded and streamed right from a browser or just pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real hit the subscribe button. And please leave us a review. Let us know what you think of our show. So whatever system you might be listening to us on Apple podcasts, Google Play Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon wherever. Let us know what you think of the show. Leave us a review. Elizabeth, thank you so much all the way from Latvia. We are excited to chat with you. Thank you for taking time with us and we will see everybody on the next episode.

In our June episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties discusses the shift and the slowdown in the real estate market. Carrie shares tips on what agents should do when there is a slowdown in the market. Carrie also emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with good people and being positive. D.J. shares his marketing tip of the month.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s episode, one of the most successful realtors in Chicago for the last 20 plus years is going to give her take on what’s going on with the market and what she sees coming up in the next year. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show

Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast for real estate agents and by real estate agents My name is DJ HARRIS I am your guide and host through the show today is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carey McCormick Real Estate Group here in Chicago with at properties at properties Christie’s international I should say. Carrie is a top 1% producer in the Chicagoland area with over 20 years of experience helping buyers, sellers and investors. In fact, in the past 12 months, there are by the way, 44 I think actually now 45,000 Real estate agents here in Chicago Carrie is ranked in the top 15. And I don’t mean 15% I mean the top 15. That is just how successful and impressive she is. She is a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. By the way, I happen to live in a development that Carrie represented. And that’s an I could not be happier. But please visit Carrie. And on Instagram it she has one of the most impressive Instagram accounts I’ve ever seen for a realtor. And she does it all herself. So follow her on Instagram, which is at Carey McCormick real estate. There’ll be a link to that in our show notes. So you don’t have to type it in. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 2:58
Well, thank you and I’d love just real quick since we talked about developments, we are getting ready to launch a new development in Chicago. It’s called Wolfram 18. It’s 18 single family homes in Lakeview. So if anyone is looking for a new construction home or has buyers, please reach out to me I would love to tell you more about that development.

D.J. Paris 3:21
And in Lakeview, it’s really rare where there’s new developments. So this is this is a huge deal for Chicago.

Carrie McCormick 3:27
Yeah, no, it’s excellent. And I wanted to also kick off by telling people that if anyone is looking for a job, I for the first time I’m going to be hiring. I am a solo agent, as a lot of people know. And I’ve got a wonderful support team that works with me, I’ve got, you know, some assistance and contract people and I would love to hire a new person for my team and it would be in a support role of Contract Administrator operations, some marketing, a little bit of everything, and I love teaching and training people. So if anyone’s looking for something new and exciting, I’d love to talk with you.

D.J. Paris 4:15
And I think to just to be able to absorb some of your practices, which I think are obviously successful practices. You know, somebody out there is thinking, you know, should I join a team obviously, you can always do that or you can also work directly like under somebody like what Carrie is is suggesting and an admin position because you’re going to learn everything and you know probably was such a such yet for some nice success in the future. So definitely reach out to Carrie if you are interested in that position. So yeah, so what’s what’s going on this this month, what are

Carrie McCormick 4:52
we what should we be rounding out May here may 2220 22. And the big headlines you No late this month are sensing a shift in the market. And I know that for the last couple of months, we’ve been talking about inventory crisis and you know, being a seller’s market, and I don’t necessarily think that it’s going to shift to a pure buyers market. But there definitely is a market of a little bit of a slowdown. I tell people, you know, again, we’ve been going the brakes a little bit down to 100, maybe 90, you know, so the market is still moving. But you know, we’re sensing in The Usual Suspects, we obviously have some interest rates that have gone up, almost doubled. And then we’ve got inflation, we’ve got fatigue in the market. So we’ve got a little bit of the stock market hasn’t been doing well. So we’ve got a little bit of everything coming at us. And it’s slowing down. And I am also you know, I’ve got partners on the East Coast and the West Coast, they are feeling the same. So it’s not just Chicago, we do think it’s a national slowdown, except our friends in Florida. It’s an Arizona, they still seem to be, you know, pumping out those crazy double digit numbers. So But anyways, you know, I read reports from Fannie Mae, I read from Zillow in men just announced something today is talking about the shift. So again, we just as brokers, you know, we have to prepare for it and gear up. And one thing I was saying to DJ earlier is, you know, because I’ve been in the industry for so long, and I was saying, it’s just incredible that I’ve been in it for 22 years, and I’m only 25 years old, right? So just unbelievable. It’s, I really hate saying I’ve been in it for 22 years, because then I can see people look up and trying to do math of how old I am. Tell anybody but anyways, you know, and I’ve been in the market for a long time, and I’ve been through several different, you know, turns in the market, you learn something from it. And I look back to a lot of you know, my successes, and you know where I’m at today. And it’s that perseverance through some of the hard times. And again, not that I’m predicting that we’re going through a hard time, but you’re going to learn just different skill sets. And a few things I wanted to talk about is what do we do in a time where we do see the slow down and one is going to be focused on your database. Everyone tells you that and you know, I know it sounds like an easy thing to do. But just think about all these people that you’ve worked so hard to get as clients and they sit there and your database or you haven’t talked to them in a year or two, and you’re just out busy looking for new clients, nurture the ones that you have, you know, you spend all that time and money getting those clients, nurture them, you know, send them updates of what’s happening in the market. You know, set them up on a search, you know, even though they may not currently be you know, looking to sell or buy, but set them up on a search it starts getting them you know, engaged. You had mentioned what was your stats on Zillow? What were you saying? Yeah, so

D.J. Paris 8:09
So Zillow, Zestimate is you know, something that agents you say that word and agents either go, I hate that or they have some sort of very visceral reaction. And whatever our listeners who are like largely going to be Realtors think about Zillow and Zestimate. The fact is 200 million unique views or users per month, visit Zillow. Now, not all of those are from the United States, but let’s assume 90% are, we only have what 450 million or so maybe 500 million people in this country. So maybe close to 30% of them are checking Zillow every month, maybe 40%. So we know that this is where people are going to look. And they are they are seeing that Zestimate and unless their agent has told them, you know, that’s not very accurate, they’re gonna think that that’s accurate. Right?

Carrie McCormick 8:59
Exactly. So you know, with all these consumers going to Zillow, and just kind of peeking out, whatever it is, you know, their home value, you know, get in front of them, you know, before another agent does. So, again, focus on your database, keep your existing clients updated of what’s happening in the market. The other thing to focus on is education. Again, every day, learn something new, there’s always something new and exciting coming out. So you know, continue to learn and don’t ever stop learning, you know, and push yourself push the envelope into doing different things with your marketing and in how you brand yourself. So again, education is going to be important during this time, and networking. You know, early on in my career, I was such a great networker and I would go to everything and then it just I kind of just stopped doing it. And it’s, um, you know, getting back into the swing of all these different networking events and connecting people and it’s just one of the best things to grow your business. Not everyone’s a buyer right now or right now. But I will tell you that you mentioned the word real. People want to know, and just educate them, you go to a networking event and just, you know, again, not talk about yourself as a broker, but you need to talk about the market talk about something that, you know, brings value to them. And it definitely works. There was a saying that says what you focus on will expand. And that’s 100%. True. You focus on your business, you focus on whatever it is, and you stay full, you stay focused on it’s going to grow.

D.J. Paris 10:39
Yeah, I agree. I think by focusing on it, it helps sort of block out some of the noise that might be happening, we could keep ourselves busy all day by following every moment of the news and what’s happening in our industry. And in, you know, obviously, there’s there’s lots to focus on outside of our industry news as well. And I’m not saying people shouldn’t follow that, but be mindful of how you spend your time and where you put your attention. Because if your business is struggling, obviously, you want to put your attention on business building activities as much as you can, so that you can keep going through, you know, a challenging time for agents right now.

Carrie McCormick 11:20
Right? Right. And just and I always say to people just be kind to each other, you know, the world is, you know, as goes in our ups and downs. And in, I’ve noticed, you know, when you give kindness to other people it gives it gives it back to you. So we all go through, we’re in sales, right? There’s ups and downs. And there’s some days, I mean, believe me, there’s days that I’m you know, it’s just you and I were talking about this before, there’s days, I’m just like, I just can’t I just can’t get up today, like, I just don’t even want to do do anything today. But you know, it’s, we all go through it, and you just have to remain positive and just surround yourself with good people a good team. And, you know, just keep it positive and be kinder to each other.

D.J. Paris 12:07
Yeah, I think I think you’re right, that kindness thing, and the giving sort of nature is seems to really work. My friend Joel from guarantee rate always, he always says it says givers givers gain mentality, like, give as much as you can and wait, just watch and see what comes back to you. And it’s almost always more than you think.

Carrie McCormick 12:28
But I though to just real quick, quick segue is Joel is such a great guy. And I called him, you know, one day out of the blue, he didn’t have to pick up the phone, he didn’t have to give me the information. He you know, he didn’t have to do what he did. He took five minutes out of his day, he gave me everything I needed and just was a great guy. And, you know, I remember the way that he treated me and was very respectful and his tone. And you know, I’ll always remember that. So he definitely does what he says he’s doing.

D.J. Paris 13:02
Yeah, he’s he is a great guy. And he’s a good representation. And we’re glad to have him on our show. He’s a good representation of, of just how to stay positive, through, you know, challenging times. Because in the mortgage side, they’re, they’re starting to experience some challenges. Not not Joel himself, but the mortgage industry. It’s with rates going up. It’s tough. So I was at a, I was at an event yesterday with about 200, I think, younger realtors, and I don’t mean younger in age, although some of them were young and age, but new to the business young to the business. And I was sitting amongst people who I did not know a lot of realtors who I just hadn’t met yet, from all sorts of companies. And I was asking, like, how are things going for you? Right? I’m just curious, like, how are you doing? Most of these people were in their first couple of years. And the the the consensus was, I just could feel the stress and tension that every buddy I talked to was feeling it was either there’s no inventory or rates are going up and my buyers are freaking out. Or, you know, I can’t seem to convince any of my owners, the people I know who own to sell, because there’s no inventory to buy. And it just felt like everyone was collectively just clenching and just being stressed and I get it. And I don’t have a solution for that. But if you are finding that you’re overly stressed right now, because of course, things can be challenging in the industry. And if I think stressed and busy is different, it’s probably better than being stressed with nothing to do. So if you are in a position where you’re like, I have a lot of free time and nothing’s really happening. What I might suggest as a marketing tip, and this is such a simple tip and I’ve given it before but I really think it’s a good idea is we talked about Zillow and there’s estimate well Zillow believes their Zestimate is within a couple of percentage points now plus or minus two. I talked to one of their data scientists and I said How accurate is estimate and when they first started it I forgot when they launched it like 2007, or something like that. And he said we were about, I think, Boy, I’m gonna get this number wrong, but I think it was 14% accurate. So we were 14% plus or minus which, that’s 28% swing. So it’s not that accurate. And they said, We think we’re down now down to based on our data about 2% accuracy. Now by saying that plus or minus 2%, of what it actually would sell for a home. Now, people listening might go, that is absolute BS, it is never within 2%. It’s always wildly off. So

Carrie McCormick 15:32
call me if you don’t like the number of people love to say it’s right. I I know that.

D.J. Paris 15:39
That’s very good point. But regardless, we know that this is what our clients or our prospective clients are looking at whether it’s accurate or not, is probably not super relevant. But what is relevant is that you can do what Zillow can, which is really look specifically at each one person in your database. You know, if you know their property, you could actually run a much better comp most likely, right? You can look and see what sold the last couple of months that are there. And you’ll probably hopefully you would do a better job not you carry but our listeners would do a better job than maybe what you know, an algorithm could spit out. So here’s what I was thinking as a homeowner who doesn’t practice real estate, I love to find out what my home was worth. And I don’t really know how to run comps that well as an agent. So I just go to zest I go to Zillow, I don’t know if it’s all that accurate, but I just use it because it’s easy. And you know, what I would do is do that for every single person you know, that owns a home and say, Hey, I was just looking on Zillow. Zillow says your home’s worth this, I wanted to see how accurate it was. So I actually went in and ran what I think is maybe even a more accurate quote. And here’s what I think. And you know, just wanted to let you know, and if you’re ever interested in exploring the option of maybe, you know, making a transition, I’d love to talk to you. But regardless, I just wanted you to know what your home was worth. Because you might be hearing a lot about inventory shortages and homes are appreciated and appreciated, etc. So will that get you more business? I don’t know, it certainly isn’t going to hurt. And I think you know, if owners are going to Zillow anyway, to see what their home is worth, then you’re just doing what they’re already doing. And just going a step a step beyond. Most realtors will never do this. So I think this is just a good tip to keep the your your sphere of influence saying boy, Mike, my agents, right on top of things are really thinking about me,

Carrie McCormick 17:31
right. And that just goes back to two of just education is, you know, anything that you learn, or I learned in the market, share it with your clients, you know, because that’s what route reading is, you know, whether it’s the whatever it is, you know, share it with your clients, and whether it’s on social media, or you send them a letter, send them an email, text, there’s just so many different ways. Another one, just to to piggyback on that is you can send a quick video I’ve gotten a few of those from like mortgage lenders or just I love those Yeah, no, I can’t I can’t do it quite yet. But is they you know, sent me a quick video of just, you know, like, Hey, I was on, I’m just making this up, you know, I was on Zillow and your Zestimate was x, you know, give me a call when you can and it was like, I don’t know it, you know, just even that more personal touch of seeing their face on my phone. It was just it’s, it’s it’s good, there’s possibilities are endless. You just have to put the effort into it and stay driven and stay focused.

D.J. Paris 18:28
And by the way, if you don’t have a sphere of influence that’s really sizable to do these sort of Zillow estimates. And then rerunning comps, you don’t it doesn’t have to be somebody you know, that’s probably the best place to start. But you could literally go into the MLS, see all the homes that were sold like two years ago, three years ago, in a particular area, and then you could just literally create this for that homeowner, and hand deliver it if you’re comfortable knocking on doors, or hand delivering it to their porch and saying, you know, there are, this could be a way to introduce yourself to somebody and most agents once the sale is over, you know, struggle with staying in touch with their clients. So this is a great way that even if you didn’t have a sphere of influence, and you’re brand new to a city and didn’t know anyone, you could do that on your own, you know, it’s a lot more work and you won’t have as much success as you would if it was your own sphere of influence your own past clients, but it is, it is not a bad idea. Believe me, most homeowners are not getting this information just randomly sent to them in the mail. They’re getting all sorts of postcards and things like that, but they’re not getting a hey, I put a little report together for you. We’d love to chat about it with you and even just hand them the report or you know, definitely another idea. So anyway, I think those are some great some some good advice from both Carrie and myself for for this month. Also. You know, it’s Memorial Day is coming up in in a couple of days. And you know, if nothing else great opportunity to wish Happy Memorial Day to not only all of our listeners, but our listeners should be wishing that to their sphere. of influence, you know, let that make sure people know, you know that you are, you know, thinking about them and thinking about their holiday weekend and just shoot them an email, or a text message or phone call or whatever. All right, well, I think that’s a great place to wrap up for this month. By the way, if anyone out there is looking to either if you’re a realtor and you’re not in the Chicagoland area, but you have clients that are either moving to Chicago, maybe they’re being relocated, or they have relatives that are, you know, here in Chicago, Carrie would love the opportunity her and her team would love the opportunity to chat with them. Or if you are a buyer or a seller and investor or renter that is looking to work with a top Realtor in Chicago. Carrie is great option. I’m Carrie, what’s the best way that someone should reach out to you

Carrie McCormick 20:45
always call me 312-961-4612 or shoot me an email it’s Kerry ca RR ie at properties that come.

D.J. Paris 20:56
And remember Kari is looking to add somebody to her team. So if you are a local Chicago realtor, and you’re thinking might be a good fit for Kerry reach out to her she can explain more about the position. And I know if it was me and I was practicing, I would want to work with a very top producer because I imagine a lot of their practices would rub off. So definitely reach out to Carrie if you’d like to consider being being a member of her team. Carrie, thanks again for all these years of service of our show. And we ask our audience to support Carrie follow her on Instagram find her at Kerry McCormick real estate on Instagram. That link is in our show notes. And also like I said, if you know anyone that needs help in Chicago, she would love to chat with them. And on behalf of Carrie and myself. We thank our audience for continuing to listen and support our show and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 21:46
Thank you

Jon Lahey the founder of The Fine Living Group at eXp talks about his transition from IT into real estate business and what kept him motivated to build his career in the business. Jon also describes how he built his team in 3 different locations and gives tips on how to search for the best matching team to join. Jon shares how is he keeping his team motivated, engaged and positive in the current market. Last, Jon shares his tips on how to get your offer noticed.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Jon Lahey can be reached at (301) 900-3178.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
There are so many real estate teams out there. How do you select one to join? We’re going to discuss that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer John Leahy from Washington DC. Before we get to John, just a couple of quick reminders for everyone listening right now please tell a friend about the show. That’s how we grow. It’s how we reach more. More listeners and we can do more episodes when we get more listeners. So tell someone else in your office who wants to learn from top producers about keeping it real. And also please leave us a review if you’re listening on Apple podcasts or maybe Spotify stitcher Google Play Amazon wherever. Let us know what you think of the show. We read all the reviews and comments and that’s how we continue to improve hope everyone is having an amazing summer. And you know what you’ve heard enough of me let’s get right to it my interview with John Leahy.

Today on the show we have gotten laid fine living group with exp in the DC metro area. Let me tell you more about John John Lee. He is a best selling author and experienced speaker and the founder of the fine living group at exp. He was born in Indonesia. But John moved to the US as a child in 1990 and was inspired by his parents strong work ethic to achieve homeownership. He earned his BA in information systems and management from the University of Maryland. He launched his real estate company in 2010 and is a certified proctor coach who mentors every single member of his team. Since choosing to focus on real estate. John has consistently finished in the top 1% in the nation. As a realtor selling over 200 homes per year. John’s network has grown rapidly growing from approximately 20 realtors to 60 realtors in just a year. And before I actually bring John on going from 20 realtors to 60. What I do all day is is recruit realtors. That is an incredible feat. So John is amazing. We’re so happy to have him please visit John at his website, which is the Leahy group L A Hey, the the Leahy group.com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes. John, welcome to the show.

Jon Lahey 3:57
Hey, thanks for having me here. DJ.

D.J. Paris 4:00
So grateful to have you. I first you’re in one of my favorite cities. Oh, and I think most people love, love the DC area. And not just the city is so cool. The surrounding areas. I know you guys sort of tackle all of it. And do you do you end up just had a quick question? Because I know I have friends that are attorneys in that area, they oftentimes have to take the bar in different states because of course the border a border, a few of them is the same The same thing happened for for real estate where you have to get licensed in each state.

Jon Lahey 4:31
So I just laugh because not because of that. But if we were known as like, the area with the most lawyers was attorneys. So yeah, in real estate here, I have to get my license in Maryland, a DC license of Virginia license. And the best part is the continuing education or education for all three, and only a few of the classes like overlap. So most of the time, what are the classes I’ll have to take like the actual classes um Every time I ended renewal is different years. So something I don’t look forward to is that

D.J. Paris 5:05
is it? Is it three different MLS is as well or is it a one is

Jon Lahey 5:09
only 1am? I? Oh, thank

D.J. Paris 5:11
goodness, one. Anyway, I was just curious. I know that that’s not the reason why you’re here. But I did want to I was curious because of course DC is such a complicated area. And they probably should just make it its own state. But we can that’s another conversation for another time. But I would love to talk to you have done so much since since since you started in real estate, but you started out as an IT guy. So I like the I am so always loved some how people transition into real estate. You know, you were you originally when you were at University of Maryland was the thought to become a developer or to work in the tech space, or were you always thinking real estate.

Jon Lahey 5:49
So the funny thing is, real estate was never, you know, in my mind, I remember it was like four or five years after I graduated high school, I came back to my high school for my sister’s graduation. And I met my close friend my like one of my best friends from high school. And he had became a realtor. And I looked at him like what’s wrong with you? Like, why would you give up like your your engineering? He was an engineer, I’m like, Why did you give up your engineering degree to become a realtor? I’m like, That makes no sense. Like, I trashed the guy, right. Two years later, I was licensed. Like, I never had any plans of becoming a realtor. You know, it’s kind of like I don’t want to say it’s by accident. I believe it was my destiny. But it was never planned. It was never planned I, I worked as I work in IT company. And my job was to train like all these end users around the world. So I was working overnight overnight shifts with my clients in Germany, my clients in Hong Kong, and I was just always available on their hours. And then during the day here, I would show houses. That’s how that’s how I was juggling between the IT world and then the real estate world. And then just, I was I just I looked at my numbers couple days ago. And the funny thing is my first four years in real estate, I sold a total of 11 homes. So I had no business like even surviving in real estate because for years, I sold 11 homes. And then on my fifth year, I decided to go full time into real estate. Which if you think about it, it’s crazy, because

D.J. Paris 7:23
that is crazy, based on the previous four years, right? And I’m like,

Jon Lahey 7:27
I don’t know what I was thinking. But something inside me was like, Hey, you should go full time with real estate. And so I did. And thank goodness, I have a family who supported that idea and didn’t call me crazy or stupid or dumb. And my wife’s like, you know what, if you believe that, if you believe it’s time to go to real estate, I’ll support you. And my first year in full full time in real estate, I sold 11 homes and I’m like 11 is like the number apparently, you know and um, and then from

D.J. Paris 7:54
by the way, that’s not a bad number for a first year in real estate. It’s it doesn’t make me feel good from a bank account perspective. But that’s not an uncommon and again, I know you had been doing it for several years part time before but really it’s not a terrible first year but it’s not an easy first year.

Jon Lahey 8:12
It’s not an easy first year and I thought you know I’m sure a lot of the listeners have probably thought the same thing. We unlike that I just need one just like million dollar sales and this will be an amazing year and that million dollar sale never happened and I’m just like I just need one more deal one more deal it was it was like an up and down every two three months. There’s no deals right and yeah, it was a hard first year full time in real estate for me but hey, I survive and that’s where I am today so I’m so

D.J. Paris 8:44
what do you think made the difference? You know having look you had a great job you were well you’re really doing two jobs but But you had a great career in the tech space you know and and certainly that was your your training was was to stay you know stay in that world then you decided to dabble in real estate you know in your in your off hours which you really didn’t have many and then you said I want to try this full time. The first year you know 11 deals pretty good first year not a fun maybe not a fun first year but but you know, numbers wise, not terrible, but not not enough to really you know, maybe replace the income maybe even from that from the other job. So so when you got past that first year, was there anything what kept you motivated? You know, did you just see that this is going to get easier and better? Or was it like I’m just did you try different things? I’m just curious what made the difference for you?

Jon Lahey 9:39
I always believed that failure was not an option. You know, I learned early on that once you made a decision burn the boats you can’t go backwards. So I I’m like alright, well there’s no going back. I’m just gonna have to make this work somehow. After that first year, I met a mentor. And I can tell you right now you know any But who’s listening today? If you want to go to the next level, find somebody who’s already doing and accomplish what you really want to do and just find that person and hang around that person and pick up the clues, because success leaves clues, right? Figure out how to think, figure out what they’re doing, and just copy it. And so that’s what I did. My, my first year, I sold 11 homes for first year full time, I barely survive. My second year, I met a mentor. And then I just spent all my time just learning from this person. Actually, I met a couple of mentors. And so I was I was very fortunate to have met multiple mentors. And, and that really made the difference in that my second year, my third year, I went from selling 11 homes to 22 homes to 44 homes. And then it’s just that’s the rest of you know, that’s that’s, that’s the history is I just kept on doubling my production. But the doubling of the production got XL acceleration in that process, because I met somebody who’s already accomplished it. And all I did was I was like, Alright, let me just copy what you’re doing. Let me just copy how you think. Let me just copy how you troubleshoot things, you know, coming from an Information Systems background, the way my brain works is always like that, you know, if the systems follow the systems follow the outcomes predictable, because that’s the, that’s the that’s the system’s processes, right? So with that mindset, I’m like, Alright, if I just follow their process, my outcome should be the same. And so I started doing that

D.J. Paris 11:27
makes all the sense in the world. And it reminds me of that story of Roger Bannister, who I think it was Roger Bannister, who run the ran the first four minute, mile mile. Yeah. So they’re just not that I’m going to go through a whole story. But my understanding is whatever year that was, I want to say it was in the 70s. But I could be wrong. But whatever year it was that he did that. Nobody had done it prior. And then literally that next year, because he had done it. And he talked about success, success leaving clues. And I’m not sure that people necessarily knew what his regimen was, but just also even knowing that it’s possible, which is essentially what having your mentor was like, Oh, you did 11 homes I did 75 or 100, or 200. And you’re all of a sudden, you’re like, Oh, it is possible. So and then you got to actually watch what that that mentor did. And you know, and you’re so right, success leaves clues. And it probably saved you countless years, I would think of trial and error, because you already had somebody who had been through the war.

Jon Lahey 12:29
Exactly. I don’t have to I didn’t have to recreate the wheel. And I didn’t have to go through all the failures. I mean, I failed a lot to you know, that’s the other reason why I was successful. I don’t mind trying. Other people are telling me, Hey, don’t do that don’t do that’s not gonna work. And I’m like, Well, how would I know? It’s not gonna work if I don’t try it? So I’m like, let’s try. And so I realized that the more successful the person is, if what they don’t tell you is all the failures that they have along the journey that they don’t, that’s not don’t go on social media, by the way, I don’t post my failure stories. My close friends know my failure stories here on this podcast, I’ll tell you my failure stories. But it’s not something where we just tell you stuff on stage, like, oh, yeah, by the way, let me tell you about how I felt on that one, and that one and that one, but all the people who are successful in life, I bet you there’s a boatload of boatload of like less successful stories along the way that they keep on getting up from, you know, and

D.J. Paris 13:26
I was gonna say, I actually, I actually think I actually think really successful people fail more. And meaning there’s just because they’re doing more, they’re failing more. And as a result, they’re learning because you only learn when you fail, or when you make a mistake. I mean, it’s really the only way we learn. And so the idea of failure is the feedback loop. I mean, you’re a systems guy, you know, failure is is the way to improvement. And so it’s sort of the irony is failure stinks. And it’s not fun, but it really is the key is fail as much as you can just learn from it and make adjustments.

Jon Lahey 13:58
Tony Robbins said this, right, Tony, I’m sure you know who Tony Robbins is awesome and never ending improvement, which is part of the never ending improvement. It’s also there, there’s gonna be failures and stumbles and, and other things along the way where it’s not perfect. So, I mean, I love it. Somebody says, If you want to be successful, fail, and when you fail, you’re gonna, you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fall forward, you’re not falling backwards, you know. And so every time you’ll fail, you’re just gonna get there, get back up and fail again, get back up again and fail again. And you know what, I’m more sick. I’m more proud of my failure stories than where I am today. Because the failure stories defines who I am, because I have every single one of those failure opportunities. I keep on getting getting back up and everybody who’s successful has those in their, in their part of their process. It’s like, alright, where is this part of the journey? And you just keep part of a

D.J. Paris 14:49
part of the deal. As part of that. Yeah. And and also, resiliency is what you get when you bounce like you were saying, you got back up, you kept going, and all of a sudden you build the Those muscles in those calluses where it’s like the failures, don’t, you know, you’re like, Oh, I survived that. And then it’s like, Oh, it didn’t kill me that I lost that client. Okay, I guess I’m okay, I can dust myself off and keep going. And then those failures get easier and easier to handle, because you’re building that resiliency muscle and I talked to, I talked to had recently talked to a therapist about this. And she’s like, the most important skill that she thinks people don’t often develop when they’re younger is resiliency, it’s this idea of being able to fail, and then learning how to, like, soothe yourself so that you go, Okay, it’s gonna be fine. You’ll you’ll you know, and then you make some adjustments you try again, and, but the resiliency and also I love the fact that you cut off any other option to which which we don’t ever, we don’t talk about that much in our at least in our society of cutting off, like you said, burning burning the bridge behind you. It’s like, you didn’t really burn a bridge, but you’ve just like, This is it, this is what I’m doing. Of course, you I’m sure could have gone back into the IT world if you really wanted to, because of that’s your training. And that would have been a fine career too. But realizing like, I’m going to figure this out, people figure this out. And probably people a lot less intelligent than you figure this out, too. So it’s like, wait, I can do.

Jon Lahey 16:15
Exactly. And I just wrote on my paper, you know, the failure makes the success sweeter. It makes it so the celebrations much sweeter when you remember where you came from. Imagine you just get into real estate and boom, the next thing you know, you already made a million dollars, but there’s no journey to the story. What do you celebrate, you just celebrate getting there. And then you’re like, Alright, so what’s next, but the really the success, the happiness, the satisfaction is in the journey of getting back up, up and and trying something and not working. Just keeping keep going at it. You know, the determination of thinking Grow Rich, one of the first thing they said is the reason why Henry Ford, Henry Ford is successful, is because of his his determination. That’s really the secret. Yeah, determination.

D.J. Paris 17:01
Yeah. And Henry Ford would say I’m not the most intelligent person. I’m not the smartest guy in the room. In fact, I think he would have a panel of buttons on his desk that would summon you know, this is before the internet, but he would summon people from from other departments. He says I don’t need to know everything. Because I have people in my life that I just push a button. I mean, you could call that a mentor, you call that a co worker, whatever I can I can get the answer to anything by pushing this button. He but his point was like, he’s like, I’m not the smartest guy. I’m just maybe really determined. I’m going to figure it out. And I love I love that, that you have that. And I because you’re a systems guy. Our audience loves hearing about systems. So I’m curious if you know, we’re not asking you to share your secret sauce, of course. But any system ideas, you have that agents when you’re coaching agents, when you’re talking to him that you feel, gosh, I see this a lot where they’re just not they don’t have this part of their process really well defined. Or I’m curious if you have any suggestions for our audience for systems?

Jon Lahey 18:02
Oh, absolutely. So it was maybe like eight years ago, and I had just fired my third assistant in like, two months. And I was standing outside the restaurant. I’m a foodie, right, I’m sitting I’m standing outside the restaurant and my third assistant called me and I think she’s, I forgot if I fired her or she quit. And I thought to myself, I’m like, that’s gonna be a better way. Like, why am I why am I attracting the wrong people? And then I realized it’s probably me, like, I didn’t

D.J. Paris 18:28
have a common denominator.

Jon Lahey 18:31
Them it’s me. I’m the reason why it’s not working. It’s not so. So I realized I didn’t have a system, I didn’t have a process for people to follow, which means I can’t leverage the things that I shouldn’t be doing to grow my business to the next level. So I can focus on the high dollar productive, productive activities, because I’m doing everything right. And I realized that I’m the reason why this is all failing. I remember I got on a plane the next day, and I was in DCAA, Reagan National and I was flying to LAX. So it’s a good five and a half, six hour flight. I was sitting on the second second row, middle seat. So I was stuck in the middle. And this is before like internet was like common on flights. So I can’t get on today. I can’t get on the internet. And I was I was stuck in the middle seat and I pulled up my notepad, my yellow notepad. And I thought to myself, Okay, what would have to happen what happens every single time I get a client I start writing it down paperwork and sending an introduction email and making sure the listing agreement gets sent on to this person and that person and this person and I created an actual checklist system for my processes, the things that are the lowest dollar producing activities I put on paper and then when I got back home I put it all into a checklist system in my in my I use Infusionsoft. So I put everything into Infusionsoft that triggers automatic emails and you know when people follow the checklist, What I did is I can,

D.J. Paris 20:02
I’m sorry, I’m just gonna say, it’s so funny because as you were saying that I was realizing, and I hope our audience was thinking the same thing that I was thinking in my own business. And again, I’m not a Producing Realtor, but I do other things, very similar to what Realtors do. And I was thinking, Oh, what are my low income producing? Or what are my non income producing, you know, process or sorry, tasks that I have to accomplish that I should consider giving to someone else? So I’m sorry, go ahead.

Jon Lahey 20:30
Oh, so So that’s exactly what I did. And then I get back home, I put everything into Infusionsoft which is our CRM slash data process systems and, and I called the local high school. And I said to him, like, connect me to the counselor, and the counselor, but then I said, Hey, can you get me a student who needs extra hours, and I want to train her to run my system. Because I looked at it, as you know, McDonald’s, McDonald’s is run by systems. And the thing with McDonald’s is, no matter which McDonald’s you go to, you can go to McDonald’s in Chicago, you can go to McDonald’s, in Rockville, Maryland, you can go to McDonald’s in LA, you get the same stuff, you get the same process, you get the same output, because the system is predictable, right, the, the outcomes predictable. And so I called the high school, and I said, Send me a student, a smart girl or a smart person. And I’m like, Just give me somebody who needs extra hours. And so I gave her mice the key to my kingdom, which at the time was we had like four or five agents. And I said, All right, you’re gonna run my system, this is how I know if the system is going to work or not. Because when a system is followed, regardless of skill set, the outcome should be predictable. Right? And so I gave the keys to the kingdom to a 17 year old. And I said, I’m gonna train you to run my company, based on this checklist that I created on a plane. And I know it sounds funny, right? But I said, Alright, let’s try it. And then I went on a trip. So November, December 2020. What is it 2015. December 2015, we flew to Bali, we actually went to Bali. And we left and we stayed in Bali, for four weeks, flew back home. And we had $7.9 million in ratified contracts while I was out in Bali, because one of the systems follow the outcomes predictable. And I look at it, I’m like, did a high school girl just manage my team, and we just had our productive month ever. It’s incredible. And, um, and so that’s my system story. If there’s one thing that somebody who wants to scale up and first off, find out what, what things are bogging you down, that’s not really high dollar producing activities. And give it to somebody else and create a checklist system that checklist ism is the easiest way to do it. Just make a checklist of the things that has to happen every single time. Something happens, right. So that’s what I created, I gave it to somebody, and I taught her how to do it.

D.J. Paris 23:04
I love that because and also back to the McDonald’s sort of reference is McDonald’s Restaurants are essentially run by 17 year olds. Exactly. So so that’s sort of the genius of it is like, well, if they can, you know, and I’m not here putting 17 year olds down, they’re just you know, they’re just 17 year olds, they, they, you know, they can follow processes, they’re probably not great innovators of that age, or who knows, but they’re able to follow instruction. Clearly fast food restaurants know that. And so that is an incredible, I’ve never heard of anyone. I’ve heard of people hiring like an experienced person to then run their systems. But I love the fact that you’re like, I want to see, the probably it was the most sort of true test is like, I want to get somebody who really has no business running any of this. And it works. And that’s incredible.

Jon Lahey 23:53
We’ve always had good agents, but I didn’t hire a high level director, leader manager, until we were selling like 150 homes. 180 homes at that point, I’m like, All right, for us to go to the next level, I do need somebody who’s actually a high level like leader, because at that point, we get a double we need I need I need leaders because at that point, it’s more than just a system. We need leadership to go with it. Right. But until we were selling 150 homes, 120 150 homes, all of my all of my stuff was run by just systems and and assistants.

D.J. Paris 24:31
I love that and we’re so lucky now in this time to be able to with technology now we can get connected to help from all over the world and we can we are not limited. You know, simply to like local high school kids if that’s not what what somebody wants for their business. I mean, you can hire people from all over the world to assist and we’re I feel like a lot of realtors have yet to really adopt that and they they I think it’s scary to give up some of that control was that hard for you to even though you knew that this system likely should work was It was scary for you to then hand that over to somebody because I know a lot of our listeners, that’s that’s the feedback we get, as we say we should hire an assistant for and you can hire them relatively inexpensively if you look globally for people, but they’re like, Well, I just don’t want to I’m afraid they’re gonna say or do the wrong thing. I’m curious if you had those fears as well.

Jon Lahey 25:30
Obviously, I didn’t, because I hired and fired fast and then realized it was my fault, right? I really the thing is, if you have a at least a checklist or a process in place, you can you should be able to plug in any individual to help you with those processes is the key is you just have to know what needs to happen every single time. That’s really the key if you have the system and process in place, finding a person to plug in there shouldn’t be a hard thing. Right. And the reason why I did it that way is like I know some people like you should just hire somebody high level in the beginning. Well, the problem was I didn’t have any money. It’s not like I started and I was successful immediately right there. Another reason why I started this way was because we were limited in budget. I was reinvesting I was reinvesting a lot of the money that we were making on commission to for systems and technology and also for lead generation. So it’s not like I had a lot of leftover money to just hire a high level assistant. That was the thing. And so when COVID happened in 2020, we were very fortunate because we had been running in the cloud since 2015. Like all of my assistants, were in the clouds we were we were in the Philippines, we were in South America, I hadn’t we had zero like we didn’t have any transaction coordinator that’s local, we have nobody on Listen coordination, that’s local, all of my assistants, were running oversleep, everybody was like somewhere else. We were always running in the clouds based on systems COVID happen office shut down,

D.J. Paris 26:59
I was like, system doesn’t change anything

Jon Lahey 27:03
was the same, we have all the processes in place already. So I can say, you know, I’m very fortunate that that was the route that we took back in 2014 2015. As we were building the systems out, that we took that way instead of, you know, the paper,

D.J. Paris 27:21
I am such a big fan of, of hiring virtual assistants, for all sorts of areas of life, I actually have somebody that I hire, and I, which is basically she goes through all of my to dues with me every morning for an hour, we categorize them because I’m not good at staying on target with my two dues. She also helps with I mean this, I’m only saying this because I think this might be helpful for audience I have. So it part of my you know, my struggles is my work life. I’m pretty well, on top of things. But even in my home life, that’s where I struggle. And so I even have somebody or I say to them, can you come up with like 10 date ideas for this week. So I can then you know, organize something for my girlfriends, so that come up with like, restaurants that we should go to. And since she sends me a list of things, and it’s it’s the it’s some of the best money I spend, because I just Yeah, so it doesn’t even have to just be work, I have systems, I have systems to make sure because I won’t remember to do anything. So I have to have those kinds of systems. So I love that But enough about me but I want to tell talk you talked about, you know, you’ve become not only a top producer, but really a leader in the field. And, and I have to give you a huge shout out because you were a panelist at Rizz. Ras media’s 33rd annual CEO and Leadership Exchange, by the way rismedia We are i We’re in communication with them right now to to work on a project together as well. So I’m very excited. When I saw that I was like, Oh, that’s so cool. I’m a big fan of them. But I would love to hear about how you moved even from just, you know, hey, I’m just you know, I’m a Producing Realtor. I’ve got a team, too. Now I need to share some of this with with you know, the broader a broader audience.

Jon Lahey 29:07
You know, it’s a it’s exactly what you just said, How do I share this with a broader audience? My vision, you know, since like, 2017 2018, I was attending a conference, I was attending a Tony Robbins conference, and it was the last day and Tony was like, he shut the lights off, right? It was dark, pitch dark. And he’s like, alright, imagine where you are in five years. And I’m like, Oh, well, what’s Alright, let me imagine that. It’s like dream bigger. Like, is that it? And so, first, I was like, Yeah, I’ll sell like, 400 homes. And he’s like, dream bigger. And I’m like, Okay, I don’t know what that means. But he kept on challenging me to like, expand, like the goal and I was like, Alright, maybe I’ll open up and I started naming cities. I said, maybe I’ll open up in Florida. Maybe I’ll open up in San Diego and I started naming places that I want to like expand my brand might want to find living brands who which We never had that vision until like that conference. And that he’s like, where do you want to be? And I’m like Toronto, New York, Chicago, and I started naming like major cities. For out like West Palm Beach, Miami, San Diego, guess what? We’re open in San Diego. We all know, and thank you. We’re open, finally meaning group, Miami slash West Palm Beach, like that whole area, we have a team down there. We have a team in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland. And we’re and we’re continually expanding. And so it’s it started with that, that dream, that vision that was just birthed out of a moment where, where he challenged me to dream bigger, and I’m originally my dream was, I’m just gonna sell like, a few more 100 homes, which is like, alright, we can just do that. But it’s like, Is that all you want? And so, and I think that’s what the moment I knew what we want to do what, what the vision was, it was a year and a half ago, I realized my old brokerage was just not the right model for that, that really fit that vision of expansion. And the reason we want to expand is not just to make money, it costs money to change people’s lives. But we want to expand for like, more than that reason, right? We want to change people’s lives in these marketplaces, we want to have more influence over over all these other people’s lives, and over the market, in all these markets, and and so realizing that I was not in the right brokerage, we had to make a really big and hard decision, because I had been at my old brokerage for like 11 years. And we had I had grown from like a nobody to ranked number 23 In the world of brokerage, and I’m like, gosh, like, my ego is kind of hurting here. Like I, I’m not number one, yet, I really my ultimate goal is to become number one in the world. And I’m like, Yeah, I think it’s time to go, you know, I think we found a model with exp where expansion was possible, where growing in San Diego was actually very easy to do and opening up in Florida was gonna be very easy to do. And we had the right people in place in those two markets. And so just having that vision aligned with the model in place, and the company that have the same mission, everything is accelerated. And this is pretty cool. Because media, they they saw what was happening. You know, they know they saw that the number one REMAX broker owner team in Maryland shut down. And then the next thing, like six months later, we have two other teams, which even I couldn’t have predicted that was, I had no idea it was gonna happen that fast. You know, it was a vision. But what was cool is, it just happened so fast that the people were ready. The vision was there, we have a system that we’ve been testing for, like ages, you know, with our team locally, and then we just planted the system in Florida, we planted the system in San Diego, and then boom, now we’re opening three locations. And then rismedia saw that and they’re like, Wow, I guess we should see what’s actually happening here. Because we went from 20 to 65. In 65 Real estate agents in such a short period of time. I’m very fortunate. I’m grateful for that. And I have amazing people. I’m really fortunate because I have amazing people with me. Hang around people who believe things are possible, by the way. Like if there’s one thing just will just hang around people that believe that there’s nothing impossible and impossible things will start happening. If you hang around people who just will put you down and be like, hey, that’s impossible. That’s stupid. Don’t do that. Then you’re just gonna be stuck not growing. So if there’s one thing I can like, share today, like my vision was my vision. But hang on people who believe in that vision. Hang on people who believe in the impossible, because they’ll you’ll go far with those people.

D.J. Paris 33:51
Yeah, it’s really interesting. I, I think you’re right. It is Oh, I know. You’re right. It’s this idea of being around people who go Oh, yeah, there’s a way to do that. Instead of Ooh, that seems like oh, my gosh, that’s, you know, that seems tough or not possible. Just somebody who goes, Oh, yeah, that can be done. And that’s why being around people who are doing better than you is always so encouraging, because you’re like, oh, oh, that person figured it out. And there’s a way to do that. I want to talk since your team has grown substantially. You have 65 agents. Now. You know, last year you were at 20. So So again, as somebody who spends eight hours a day recruiting agents, I know and that’s I know, you’re not spending eight hours a day recruiting because you have a million other things to do as well like running a team and doing your own production and all of that, but and speaking and writing and all of the things you do, but I want to talk, we’re going to take just a quick little commercial break for one of our sponsors. And then when we come back, I want to ask about how you go about finding people to attract to the team because there’s so many of our listeners who are looking to either join a team or maybe start a team themselves. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on, you know how they should select a team if they want to join an existing one, or maybe even create one of their own. And before we do that couple, just a quick quick note about our favorite sponsor, which is called follow up boss. So, I want to this is my favorite CRM that exists. And I’ve interviewed hundreds of top Realtors like John in the country for this podcast over the years and the CRM that is used by more than any of our guests follow up boss. Now let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level, we all know that follow up boss will actually help you drive more leads in less time with less effort. Don’t take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the United States use his follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with 250 different systems so you can keep your current tools and processes in place. Also, the best part follow up boss has seven day a week support. Realtors work on the weekends, right. So this is this is great because you can get the help you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that they’re for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else who visits their website. So but you have to go Oh, and by the way, no credit card required either free 30 day trial, no credit card, so you don’t have to worry about them charging you on day 31. Just but you do have to go to a special link to get the 30 day trial, which that link is follow up boss.com forward slash real again, follow up boss.com forward slash real, you have nothing to lose your check out their CRM, they’re so confident you’re going to keep using it that they’re giving it to you totally free for 30 days, follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And but now let’s get back to John. So let’s talk about recruiting, and also retaining. But we’ll start with recruiting because and I don’t know that that’s even the right word, but how we attract talent to the company. And that’s maybe a word I would suspect you would probably use over recruiting. So if someone’s out there, and they’re listening, and they want to join an existing team, maybe maybe your team even how would you recommend that they might start to explore existing options teams like yourself?

Jon Lahey 37:17
You know, there are different kinds of real estate teams, right? There are different kinds of things that they offer. Some teams offer lead some teams over appointments, some teams offer support, some teams offer system, some teams, offer coaching, some teams offer everything. And of course, depending on what you need, you need to know first of all, what do you need to take your business to the next level? Because just because there’s an awesome team out there doesn’t mean that fits what you need. And then you need to know also like, ultimately, what you want your business to look like long term, like, is there a growth potential or growth opportunity for you to join that team and actually see you hit your vision, your goal long term? Or is this going to be like a temporary stay where you learn for next six months to two years, and then take what you learn and build your own team elsewhere. So kind of like know, first off, know what you want, know what you need. And then if you have that, the next part is not as hard. The hard part is if you don’t know what you know, you don’t know what you want, and you don’t know what you need, then really, there’s no good fit out there. And it’s just gonna be like, you know, you just have to test different teams. Okay. So that’s the first thing from the perspective of the team leader. For us, or for me, at least, what I’m looking for are agents that fit our core values, you know, because like I said, I have competition out here, if we have competitors that offer the same thing. So just because they fit me doesn’t mean they’re going to fit the other team and vice versa. And so looking for agents that fit our, our core belief, our core, our core values, to me is more valuable than the skills the skills I can teach. I can I can teach them scripts, I can teach them how to overcome objections, I can teach them kind of like some of the mindset things that we believe in. But if that’s not their core, it’s not sustainable, long term. Like they’ll, they’ll go back to like who they really are long term. Right. So like, for us, the number one rule that we’re looking for, or like the number one kind of like, core value we’re looking for is we love, we care we serve, we love we care we serve, we’re looking for agents that just embodies that and live and breathe and believes that the most important thing to do to one another, and to their clients is to love care serve. And it’s really easy to it’s a really easy way to measure that. Those agents that believe in loving and caring and serving, you can see their success because they’ll get more referrals. They’ll get more repeat clients, and they get more five star reviews. And then you have the other agents who just sell, sell, sell, sell, and they get none of those things. Right. So that’s something that that just we just learned along the way that there’s a lot of producers out there and there are probably other agents that do They don’t fit our culture, but they can sell a lot more with us, but they just don’t fit our cultures. And we don’t really want those agents. We’re looking for agents who love care. So like, that’s our number one and most important role on the team.

D.J. Paris 40:13
Yeah, I love that. And it’s not just a slogan, right? It’s like is ever you probably put every process and every action through that filter. First, I imagine is does this does is every action we take under that love care surf umbrella, which probably helps, it probably makes your life your job a little easier. Because sometimes when we’re not sure what to do, if we push it through that filter of that’s my highest value, that’s it probably makes it more clear what to do. I imagine that really brings things into focus about what to actually do.

Jon Lahey 40:53
Exactly, we hire we fire based on that value of love care serve, and we make decisions and we implement programs and systems based on that core value. Will this help us love care serve our clients more? Is this going to help us show that we love care? And so let’s somebody said this before and Maya Angelou it was Maya Angelou, Maya Angelou said, people don’t remember what you say, people don’t remember what you promised them. But but people will remember how you make them feel. And I was like, you know, that’s genius. Just make people feel special, will be super successful, because people will just recommend us everywhere. They’ll remember us, they’ll recommend us. It’s and I I was in line at Disney World. You’ve been to Disney. I have it’s like 105 degrees in South Florida, right? And the line few hours long, two hours long. And it was like, Oh, I know, two hours long. And I’m like, why are all these people like smiling and happy and they’re willing to line up for an experience that they’ve experienced before. It’s because they don’t remember the line. They remember how they felt. They didn’t remember how Disney made them feel. And so they keep on coming back. And I thought to myself, What if we create a process and a system where our clients feel the same way, where they don’t remember how much money we sold their home for, they don’t remember how much savings they get from us. They don’t remember how much more money they got from us because of our amazing systems. But they remember that we carry

D.J. Paris 42:28
Yeah, I one of my favorite little Disney things. And I don’t know if this is still in effect, but it used to be a rule and probably still is at on at the park down in Orlando, which is if anybody from from staff, whether it’s the person sweeping up the, you know, the cigarette butts on the or the wrappers on the floor, to the people in the Mickey Mouse outfits walking around taking pictures, anyone on staff, apparently, if they came within if they come within, now, if you have the Mickey Mouse head, this wouldn’t work. But for people that you can see their face, who work at at the park, if if if a guest if one of you know, a visitor comes within 10 feet, they have to smile at the person, they have to make eye contact and smile. And it really goes to what you just said, it’s like that’s such a simple thing. And you don’t really think about it, except that makes people feel good. It’s it’s pretty easy to do. It’s doesn’t cost anything, it’s you don’t even have to talk, you just have to smile. It’s this idea of We’re glad you’re here and we want you to feel good. And so you’re essentially doing that same version of that with love care serve. And it’s it’s really it’s again, it sounds simple, it’s actually pretty hard to do. But when when you do it, it probably just ultimately makes everything a lot easier.

Jon Lahey 43:47
It’s easy to do when the things are good when you know, easiest situation when somebody that left your team and try to recruit from your team. Like I found out 24 hours ago. And then I had to go through that. And at the end I said to my staff and my leaders, I was like hey guys, we love we care we serve. Just don’t forget that. That’s not easy to do. No, it’s easy. When things are easy. It’s not easy. When it’s a really, really tough situation. You just have to remember your core value and as a leader, like I have to remember that you know what? People look at me and they’re waiting for me to fail to they’re like, let’s see if John’s gonna embody this love care serve belief? Or is it gonna go the other way and start like trashing someone else? And I’m like, I gotta make sure that if I preach it, and if I tell people hey, we’re all about loving and caring serving, I have to keep on showing that. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 44:45
yeah. And ultimately, you know, by focusing on your core values, and again, you know, if your processes weren’t strong, you know, then then when things shake up the business, you know, the top producer on the team leaves and if tries to recruit or or you know, people away, and there’s there’s a shake up. It really helps to, to be able to go back to that because that love care serve model because it really goes, everything’s gonna be okay. This is this is you know life has ups and downs and people are involved. So you know, people are the most random things on the planet, we don’t know what anyone’s going to do at any given moment. But but you built something without any any agent, right? You were just you. So you’re like, well, I already know I can get more agents. And so but yes, it’s not doesn’t mean it’s easy. And it’s certainly, I’ve had that exact experience that you’re referencing so many times. So it’s one of those. And I used to get very, very upset about it. And then I sort of went, That’s okay, it’s all gonna be fine. But it is it certainly can be challenging. So I would love to talk when we’re talking about challenges here a challenge that most everyone is facing. And I know you can’t solve this problem. But I’m curious how you cope with this problem for you and your team. Since you are the leader, we’re dealing with a shortage of inventory pretty much everywhere. Rates, of course, are rising, they’re still pretty historically, they’re still pretty good. But they don’t feel good in the moment because of course, rates were so low before. So you have this sort of, you know, difficult time for agents that don’t have a lot of listings, and maybe are working with buyers. So I’m just curious, what are you? How are you keeping your team motivated, engaged and positive?

Jon Lahey 46:33
I tell my, my client, my agents all the time, be be the resource, educate your clients, and, and regardless if they’re a buyer or seller, position yourself as the expert by providing valuable, valuable information, right, whether it’s through videos, whether it’s through social media, don’t just be like any other realtors saying, oh my gosh, we’re in a crazy market, they already know that. But instead, how do you educate them that how do you prepare your offer so that you win. And so we do videos, every single every week, we have a new video that we send out to all of our whole database. And we treat everybody the same we I mean, we segmented the database, but we get our whole database I treat as if they’re gonna buy and sell today. Because all these people who are afraid right now who’s hesitating, they’re looking for somebody to tell them what to do. Right? People love being told what to do. People love that the decisions are made for them. And so we tell them like, Hey, if you are still thinking of moving, here’s five costly mistakes that you need to know this week, so that you don’t end up losing your dream home. Here’s the 10 things that you shouldn’t do if you’re thinking of selling your home. And so we just become a resource, right? Because you know what, if they do want to buy and sell, you have to educate them anyways, you have to tell you need to show them so that they listen to you. And so we we believe we come in with the belief that hey, just be a resource.

D.J. Paris 47:56
You demonstrate you demonstrate that you have that skill on social media and also to your existing sphere of influence your contactless. You’re consistently reminding them we have information not so much, hey, if you’re ready to buy or sell where you’re at, I’m sure you, you say that too. Or maybe you don’t but but that’s not the main message. The main message is I have something you need to hear, I have something you need to read. And so it’s amazing how few realtors do go that route and become the place that people will tune into to get knowledge versus Oh, I’m thinking it’s time for me to sell my house. I need to find a realtor versus I’ve been following this guy for a while. He’s great. And he’s constantly telling me what to do and what not to do. I’m just gonna go with him.

Jon Lahey 48:46
Exactly. And so we’re getting, we’re getting clients are buyers and sellers calling us. They’ve been on our database for ages. And they’re finally like, coming back. They’re calling. They’re like, Hey, I’ve been watching your videos, I’m ready to go now. So we treat everybody the same. And then every seller, oh, well, not every seller, but the majority of sellers are buyers. So if you have a database of buyers, essentially you have a database of potential sellers in that database. So we just, we just educate them as if they’re buyers. Because most people don’t wake up in the morning. They’re like, I gotta sell my house. Most people wake up in the morning, like this home is too small. I need another house. So that we create a video Hey, if you’re waking up this morning, and you realize that your home is too small, you need to watch this video. Here’s three costly mistakes, people have people and we give them content based on that and because it’s their thought people don’t wake up in the morning saying I gotta sell my house.

D.J. Paris 49:42
That is that is a I’m gonna pause for a second that is a brilliant insight that you just said that I’ve done about 400 episodes. I don’t think anyone specifically ever said in that way and I want to I want to sort of just go over that again because that’s really important. Yes, people might look up their home value on Zillow. Lower that, you know, they might do little things like that. But you’re right day to day people aren’t thinking about whether they want to buy or sell, but they are thinking about whatever challenges they’re having. And so you’re basically saying, Hey, if you have this challenge, I’ve got a solution for you. And that’s, that is a great way to think about creating content, thinking about what are the actual challenges that my audience is experiencing, and then here’s some knowledge or some solution. Boy, that’s a brilliant strategy, I love that.

Jon Lahey 50:31
Just be a resource, provide information, provide solutions, and then when they’re ready, they’re gonna raise their hand, they’re gonna be like, hey, DJ, I’m ready. I’ve been watching you for the last eight years, I’ve been in your database, you’re, you’re the man like you have all the content, I’m ready to go now. Right? That’s how we do it. Now, we do create that database, we do have, you know, we generate a lot of buyers, a buyer leads and seller leads, but not everybody’s ready. Most of them just goes into our database. And then we put them into our follow up process, including content, videos with content and things like that.

D.J. Paris 51:06
I love that any make you try to make a new video weekly? Is that’s that’s the schedule.

Jon Lahey 51:11
Yep. Every single week, we’ll have a new content coming out. And my assistant will make sure I do that. She’s like, hey, you need to do more videos for for next month. I’m like, Alright. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 51:25
just out of curiosity, how long do you do you have a specific length that you try to hit your videos? Do you not worry about that? Is it more about the content? Or do you try to just because I know you’re a process guy. And I know you’ve looked at all the all the data from your videos and all the engagement metrics, curious if you found shorter videos, or longer videos tend to work better for you.

Jon Lahey 51:45
I use right now all my videos are usually between three to five minutes long. But my ironically, the video that has the most views is like 15 minutes, which I can’t figure out, but that one has, that video, I think is how to sell your home without an agent. And that one has the most views. But that’s like a 15 minute video that I can’t redo. It’s just too long.

D.J. Paris 52:09
But it works. And that’s that’s the other thing too is, is I think when you’re when our audience is trying to put out content, you can experiment, experiment with long form, experiment with short form, you know, and see what what works. But I love that you’re you’re you’re really you think of yourself, I imagine you consider yourself more of a consultant than a realtor is would that be fair to say?

Jon Lahey 52:31
Very, very accurate there. I see myself as a consultant to agents, and I’m the consultant and the content for homebuyers and homeowners who’s thinking to sell. And then oh, by the way, I do sell houses like I am a realtor on the side. But I, I provide information and I consult and that’s what I do. Advisor, I’m an advisor.

D.J. Paris 52:53
And you’re always tracking with how your agents are feeling and how the clients are feeling right. Because that you were talking about making sure that there’s as many positive feelings associated with the process as as possible. And and that can be tough, right? Because with every single real estate transaction, there’s some wrinkle that’ll happen, or we can assume there’ll be a wrinkle that will cause some stress and frustration. Right now a lot a lot of that right. We’re still in a high bidding situation, lots of multiple offers. And I’m just curious if you had any quick tips since only because you mentioned it about getting an offer noticed, is there anything that you’re doing that you could share with our audience a simple way that they can, you know, have more success, having their their offers highlighted, I guess versus

Jon Lahey 53:42
I think the first part is building rapport with the listing agent. Like if there’s anything you hear from what I say today regarding like, offers, that rapport with the listing agent goes a long way that actually that report will get you a call back versus a straight on rejection. Right, you could be the second third fourth, like on the actual chain of offers, but if there’s a report and they like and trust you, you’re gonna get a call back and a lot of times you’ll get an opportunity to get to up your offer. Okay, I tell my my agents that all the time build rapport, the most important thing in your offer is you have to build rapport with the person in charge of presenting the offer. If you have a poor you have a chance if you have no report, you can be the best offer but they don’t like you who to say the agent wants say one tell their their seller and and say hey, I don’t mind this agent. Don’t work with this agent. Right? And who does say that that agent that listing agent won’t call the second highest offer and say hey, listen, I don’t like the highest offer. Can you beat it? So that report goes a long way. There Yeah, that’s my that’s my one tip.

D.J. Paris 54:57
It’s It’s the greatest tip you could have given because Um, and I just I’m 45 or 45, I think about my age, but I really just, I didn’t figure this out, I read it. But being likeable is really a lot of what we’re talking about when you’re talking about rapport. It’s like, well, how do you build rapport with agents? Okay? Well, if you there’s a lots of different ways to do that. Lots of books, and there’s whole fields of study on rapport. But if nothing else, if you’re just a nice human being, and you are authentic, and genuine and a good human being, and you are pleasant, and happy and excited, that works for the vast majority of people in this, you know, in, in society as if you’re just a nice human, it’s kind of like, about twice a year, I’ll pass somebody on the street, and they smile at me. And I noticed that it only happens a couple of times a year. You know, it, but when it does, it’s such a magical moment where I’m like, I don’t even know that person. And I liked them, just because they smiled at me, we’re talking about the Disney thing, right? It’s, it’s but it’s like, you know, even just being a good hey, I’m so excited to be able to give you this offer, I think it’s pretty solid, I don’t know you but I want to I want to get to know you, Mr. And Mrs. Other agent, you know, Listing Agent and, and, you know, you can build a relationship, a professional friendly relationship that way and, and just be a good human. And they have to deal with so many other stressed out realtors who are not super pleasant, who you know, don’t smile, don’t do the little fun things when they’re emailing the offers. And it’s just here’s the stuff, you know, and and it goes a long way just being playing nice in the sandbox, they say,

Jon Lahey 56:34
right? You never know when you’re going to encounter the same agent again.

D.J. Paris 56:39
If you will, well,

Jon Lahey 56:41
you know, as the market turns, the good agents are gonna stay, you might as well make friends of those good agents, because you’re going to see him again. And it might be if you’re the listing agent today be nice to those buyer agents, because there’ll be a time when that buyer agents now the listing agent, and you need your offer to be reviewed. And if you’re a meeting before they’re going to remember because people remember how you make them feel.

D.J. Paris 57:06
I would love to just just ask you because we asked, we do a pre interview with with our guests, and they send us some some stories, and I rarely ever get to them. But I love this one, I would love to hear about where there was we’ll just I’ll just tee it up by saying this is that you have a long lost family member, can you tell us that story with real the real estate story?

Jon Lahey 57:27
Oh my gosh, the long lost family member. And then this has nothing to do with love care. And so this is the this is I think maybe eight years ago or so. And I was at the time we were a small team. I was the buyer’s agent in this transaction, and I was showing my buyer homes all around like gaithersburg. And I got to this one house and this long lost family member that’s related to my wife. We hadn’t seen in years, just disappeared. We didn’t know where that person went. Wow. Like, I mean, we knew he was alive. But we didn’t know where he went just like disappeared. And so this Saturday morning, I put the key in the you know, in in the key and the door handle I open and and this man was trying to behind the door and he tried to open the door for me. And I looked at was like, Are you freaking kidding me? This is your house?

D.J. Paris 58:19
It was you had no idea. I had

Jon Lahey 58:21
no idea because I don’t go out there. I don’t ask the buyer agent. I don’t I’m not researching who owns the house. And I didn’t know where he live. I thought he moved out of the area. And and yeah, he he appeared and he stuck around after that, like we read you know, we we got reconnected and now we’re you know, we’re all good and fine again. But that was Saturday morning. A long lost family member that we hadn’t seen in years, was behind the door not knowing that I was the buyer agent that was going to show his house. And then we got reconnected and I remember calling my wife was like you’re not gonna believe who I just found?

D.J. Paris 58:57
Well, and there’s only millions of homes in your immediate area. So the odds of that happening are so astronomical. It’s it that’s never going to happen. Except I did.

Jon Lahey 59:08
What’s the first time I met my niece was right there when he opened the door. I was like oh, well, hello.

D.J. Paris 59:15
Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s I just had an almost identical very similar experience, not with a family member, but I was at a party this week. And this made a little bit more sense. Yours is like amazing that that ever happened. I was at a party and an old fraternity brother of mine who I didn’t know knew the new the people that were having this party. I didn’t know they were connected in any way he walks in and I and and and we reconnected and so it this really is a it was a kind of a business II sort of thing. And so it was fun. It’s like this is such a cool business because there’s so much good feelings between agents. You know, it is called a cooperative commission when agents work together when the clients get their needs met. When people are moving into their first and Home ever or their next home when they’re selling. There’s so much excitement and yes, it’s stressful too. But boy, are there some some wonderfully great feelings that go along with this business. And I, I think agents maybe could focus on like you do focusing on the feelings really helped get you through the tough times and it is it is challenging right now it’s it’s it’s tough. But but if you if you focus on those feelings and I know your team does that I’m curious, are you guys doing anything to to help owners understand the market right now meaning, right like great time to sell tough time to buy because not as much inventory. So I’m curious, how are you coaching the sellers or your agents to coach the sellers? What are you telling them to do? Because there’s probably just a lot of people who are scared, like I want to sell and make a big profit. But then I don’t know where I’m going to live.

Jon Lahey 1:00:56
We give them market data, right? We can, we can’t change the facts. But we can help interpret the data. So we give them the data like, hey, markets are increasing. Right now. That’s one of our last messages. We actually just picked up a listing this morning, I did, where the seller said, Well, I don’t really want to move until maybe October or maybe next year. And I said, that’s fine. I’m just here to be a second opinion for you. And I said to him, I’m like, alright, well, let me just tell you about the current market conditions. And then you can decide whatever you decide, I’m not emotionally connected to the outcome of what you decide. I’m just here to provide you the market information. And but because if I don’t give you the market information, and then you realize three months from now that the market has shifted, and you just lost the opportunity to sell, then it’s my fault, right? So we just come in from the perspective like, Hey, we’re just here to provide information to educate to give you all the all the latest, and then you decide what’s best for you, including staying. So I said, Alright, here’s the here’s the truth. rates have increased, the number of buyers that used to be able to qualify for your home have also decreased. And so if you sell today, here’s the current market price here we saw in October, I really don’t know. And I said, if but you can see visually, because it’s a very visual person. I said, Imagine the pool, the circle of buyers decreasing from this big to this big. And the more demand for a home, the higher your price is going to be now that that number of pull buyers now smaller, what do you think’s going to happen to your price, and of course, I’m not going to tell you, it’s gonna go down, but you can figure that out yourself. And he said, Oh, that makes sense. And his need and again, his need was he needs to sell his home for a certain number. And I said, Well, if you sell it today, I know I can get you that number. If you sell in October or next year, I really can’t guarantee that number. Because we don’t know what’s going to happen with I mean, the stock market’s crashing. You know, rates are, who knows how high it’s gonna go, I can tell you what’s happening today. And I’m here to provide you information based on today’s data. Tomorrow, I’ll give you tomorrow’s data in next next month. I’ll tell you next month’s data next month. But today, I know what’s happening today. You know, so that’s, that’s how we come in. That’s how we we provide information to our sellers. And then of course, if the end of the day, they’re like, Well, what do I buy? Well, let’s talk about what you need to buy. Let’s see if what you want is there. Because if what you want is not there, we’re also here to provide that information to you. So that’s really the angle we come in. It’s not we’re not there to make decisions, we’re there to provide the information so they know how to make the right decision for themselves.

D.J. Paris 1:03:37
Let’s deconstruct let’s just I want to just step on this a little bit, because you just said something so incredibly valuable. I want to make sure our audience got it. Number one. Here’s what I heard. When John goes into a listing presentation or a buyer consultation. He’s like, hey, almost not that he doesn’t care what decision they make. Because of course he does. And he’s running a business and he wants clients. But the message he gives across is, hey, you get to make the decision. If you want to list your home, great if you don’t define I’m going to be with you regardless, I’m not I don’t have any particular feeling of disappointment, should you decide to sit on the sidelines for a while I’m still your guy, I’m still going to hang out with you and give you anything you need. That is a really different and if we think about it from the customer perspective, because I am not a Producing Realtor. I’m thinking myself as a customer. I would go Oh, thank God he’s not trying to like he’s not going to be upset if we don’t move forward. I just because there’s pressure there as as a consumer to go, Oh God, no, I have to pretend like I’m going to do this. And then I have to think like I would I love it when sales quote salespeople unquote, say I don’t care whether you buy or not this product. I just want you to have all the information so you can make the right decision, which is exactly what you’re doing. And that is such a simple answer. subtle but crazy powerful thing for customer experience. It is. It’s also by the way. It’s it’s also very, very thoughtful. And it’s empowering to the person because you’re like, I’m going to empower you to make the right decision, Mr. or Mrs. Client. And again, not every client wants that, but most of them probably do. I just wanted to sort of take a minute to talk about that. Because that was that is so important. And again, I know it’s just part of your process. But boy, is that a powerful thing to to be able to get across? Somebody is, yeah, whether you buy or not, if now’s not the right time, no problem. I just want you to have all the data so you can make the right decision.

Jon Lahey 1:05:38
That’s exactly what it is. And so, when when nobody wants to be sold, right? I mean, do you ever go to the car dealership to be hated? No, you go to the dealership, to test drive the car. Just like the people, when they call us for a listing appointment, they’re testing you out. But at the same time, they don’t really want to be sold. If they feel like they like you, and you give them enough information, maybe they’ll want to be like, maybe they’ll come into that agreement. But the moment you just tell them upfront, like listen, and they can feel it. By the way, if you’re going out there to close, versus you’re going out there to provide information. Regardless of what happens, I’m just here to help you, they can feel that, right. And the moment they know that you’re not out there to sell them and chase them and close them hard. And you’re just there to provide information, their guard goes down. Because before that they’re all guarded up. They’re like, I don’t really want to trust you. I don’t really want to open up really what’s important to me, because I don’t want you to sell me anything. I just want to get information. So if you just upfront be like, Hey, I’m just gonna provide you information if you decide to move with me to move and sell with me. Love to. But if you’re not ready, I’m here to provide you information today. And I’m going to help you come to an agreement as to what’s best for you, whether it’s buy, sell or stay. People like that.

D.J. Paris 1:07:00
They absolutely do. It’s respectful to it’s it’s this i i You know, yes, I will be able to provide ideas and suggestions and I have guidance and I have opinions. But Mr. And Mrs. homeowner or potentially homebuyer, I want you to make the right decision for you. So I’m here as as a knowledge source. I’m here to make sure you have everything you need. That is very different than I have to win this listing presentation. Right, which is how most, not most I don’t know what what most agents think. But I think a lot of agents go in going, Oh, my God, I hope they like me, I hope I am. And the way that they’ll they’ll like you is treat them as an equal. Show respect. And also say, here are all of your options. And you and you have opinions about those options to Well, here’s what I think makes sense. Here’s what might not make sense. But this idea that hey, if by the way, if you decide this isn’t the right time, that’s totally cool. Like, you’re not disappointing me, we want you to do the right thing for you. So we’re going to be with you regardless. And then you end up getting the sale anyway, whether it’s right then or two years from now. That’s that’s the genius of it is it works every time. It just doesn’t always work instantly.

Jon Lahey 1:08:16
Right? Exactly.

D.J. Paris 1:08:19
Yeah, boy and I for anyone listening who might be thinking, well, easy for John to say he’s doing 200 sales a day 200 Plus homes sales a year he can afford to not win every listing? I bet you were doing that at the very beginning.

Jon Lahey 1:08:34
Is this a mindset I just believed that was the right thing to do from the beginning. Now, not to say that if I realized they’re actually ready to go, and you know, they’re financially able to buy or sell, they’re interested in working there, realistically, they’re motivated, I’m gonna close them, surely I will close them. I don’t, I will not walk out of the room without a present without my paperwork sign. You know, but that’s secondary. The first part is like, I’m just here. Number one, I also get to gauge if I want to work with

D.J. Paris 1:09:01
them. Right? If I right, so if you’re interviewing them to

Jon Lahey 1:09:05
me, I’m like, I don’t want to close somebody that’s gonna give me nightmares. So I want to make sure they’re the right client that I can help. Just because they’re a client that can be helped. That doesn’t mean they’re the right client for me. So I want to make sure they’re the right client for me that I can really help and support and, and provide all the information they need and all. That’s the first part and then of course, then I do close up. Otherwise, if you don’t close them, we have no business.

D.J. Paris 1:09:33
Right? It just makes it a lot easier to close. Once you’ve given them all the information that they that they want, because you’re not restricting information. A lot of realtors do that they sort of, you know, they sort of say, well, you know, they have their own secret sort of processes to restrict information and as opposed to giving as much as possible so that the client feels informed, engaged and then you can make the decisions together. It’s really, really brilliant. Well, I feel like we’ve talked about this enough. But I want to make a point as this is not only what John does with his team, so the other agents in his company, but also he, this is what he teaches the, you know, the, to the consumers, too. So this is a great thing, if you are not getting this kind of coaching and support from the firm, or from the team that you’re currently with. John’s going to train you, that’s what he does, he’s going to teach you these systems, all based around these values that he’s developed. And he he’s been attracting agents at an incredible clip based on some of these values and processes. And John, can you talk a little bit about that? Like, what when an agent joins you sort of how what you do for them, not so much like leads, and, but just teaching them processes.

Jon Lahey 1:10:58
So we do some processes, we teach their mindset, we teach them scripts, and we coach them. But really, we we start with core values. And then we ask them, What do you actually want, this time next year, you’re smiling ear to ear, and you feel like there’s the best decision in your life? What just happened? And I’m like, write it down. Because if I don’t, if they don’t know where they are, and they don’t know where they want to go? Like, then how are we going to get them there? Right. So we help them with goal setting, we help them figure out alright, my currently my production is at this level. And I want this quality of life and this quality of production, this level of production, let’s put on paper and let’s create a roadmap from where you are now to where you want to go in the next 12 months. And let’s really break it down how many appointments you need, how much how much, how much growing, you need to do, how much time how many times you got to make phone calls, how many appointments, you have to go on how much what your conversion rates going to be, and we start tracking that. That for me is measurable, because those are all measurable numbers. But if you don’t know where they are, and you don’t know where they want to go, and they don’t tell you where they want to go, I did tell you, Oh, I just want to give me one dollars. Okay, well, I do you wanna make a million dollars, right? And then what does that give you? What will you do with a million dollars you go deeper, and this, you have to go deeper with the questions for those agents. So goal setting, and really, like planning for the future vision, vision casting with them. And then we also show them our processes and systems, okay, and show them also how to we call the fine living system because we’re called fine living group. So we have our fine living system on the first part is our lead generation system. Show them how our lead generation system work. We show them how our social media system works, we show them how our inside sales department will help make phone calls for them and convert the leads into appointments. And then we teach them the actual part of the process where our agents step in, which is the face to face consultations. So we teach them the presentation, how to build your poor, how to connect how to educate and how to close. That’s it?

D.J. Paris 1:13:07
Well, I think that a lot of our audience is going to want to reach out to you to learn more about your processes, your team, and whatever coaching opportunities exist, and maybe even joining your team. So for anyone out there who is interested in working with a team like John’s, or maybe you have clients moving to the DC metro area, or San Diego area now and as John’s fine living group continues to expand, you know, they would love to talk to you too, because again, there’s referral opportunities there. So John, what’s the best way that our one of our listeners can connect with you and either to get advice or maybe just to find opportunities that would work for both you and the end listener?

Jon Lahey 1:13:51
Send an email to John Jalen at the fine living group.com, J O N at the fine living group.com. All right, and send an email there. And we’ll connect or you can go on Instagram. My Instagram handles foodie realtor. Alright, I’m the only foodie Realtor in the world. So go to Instagram and send me a message there. And we’ll connect. And if you’re local, we’ll meet up somewhere for a drink, or grab lunch. And we’ll we’ll we’ll talk and see if what I’m doing is a good fit to help you grow your business. If you’re not local, no problem. We’ll zoom we’ll connect on Zoom. And we’ll do a zoom call and we’ll talk and we’ll do a consultation. I’d love to see what I can do to help grow your business. And really, I didn’t talk about this earlier, but it was one of our mindsets from early on. If you help enough people get what they want. You get what you want. And it’s just been our process. Our whole process is based on just help people get what they want. You want to attract good agents, figure out what that agent want and give that to them. And if it’s money, if it’s a feeling if it’s accomplishment, if it’s whatever they Want to figure out how to give them that, and you’ll attract the right people?

D.J. Paris 1:15:05
It’s really funny. I was I was with my parents in just recently a couple weeks ago. And we’re my mom has recently retired. And she was very successful in her her career. And I was asking her, I said, you started a curiosity, what was the most important part of sort of you feeling? Like, you were happy in your job, and she said, you know, it never was the money. Now, some people it is money can be the, I’m not putting a judgment on whatever anyone’s motivators are. But for her, she goes, it really wasn’t the money. I mean, the money is nice. And I’m glad that they paid me well. But she goes, you know, what I really cared about more than anything was recognition from the company that I was doing a good job. And she goes, I know, it sounds kind of silly, because the money’s the more sort of exciting thing that you can, like use this buy things with, but she goes, I really just care that they that they thought I was doing a good job. And so John, what John’s talking about is really important, right? Because that’s a great way if you have a team out there, or if you’re looking to join a team, or even just for your clients, understanding what they really want and need. And then like John said, then you give that to them, you give them what they actually want and need, and everybody’s different. So you get to sort of make that distinction between each interaction you have. And, and so anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there because I was like, Mom, you the money wasn’t the number one thing she was like, nope. And it wasn’t like they were throwing millions of dollars at her it was she had a normal salary. But she goes, you know, what was bro more important was recognition. It’s like, oh, okay, cool. So if you know that about somebody, then you can you can give them the recognition they deserved thing. Yeah. It’s so funny. Well, everyone out there who is listening, and I mean, think about the feeling you got from listening to John, during this this last hour, you probably felt great. John is a happy, positive person he doesn’t he deals with adversity. It’s not he’s not immune to challenge. But think about how he made you feel during this interview. Did you feel good? Did you feel power empowered, maybe a bit resilient and motivated? Well, that’s a feeling that you’re getting from listening to John, imagine what it might be like working with John or being one of John’s clients, right? So this is a great opportunity to to reach out and find people if it’s not John, like John to be hanging out with and learn from, but John is all his team is always growing. So check them out the fine living group, again, the fine living group.com Also the Lahey group.com. We’ll put these in the show notes. So you can find John, he just gave his email address, please reach out to him, he would love to talk to you, John. It was a pleasure. On behalf of our audience, we want to thank you for spending an hour with us today. This was incredible. What a great episode. And on behalf of John, we want to thank our audience for getting all the way to the end here. And we asked everyone just to do one thing. Number one, checkout follow up boss, two things. I’m sorry, one first checkup follow up boss free 30 day trial. Second, tell a friend about this episode. Just one other realtor that you know that could benefit that needs to hear what John said today, send them a link to this episode. Easiest way to do that keeping it real pod.com that every episode we’ve ever done is there. Or you just pull up a podcast app, send them a link to our you know our channel. So John, on behalf of everyone, thank you. Thank you, and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, John. Thank you

Beth Benalloul with Corcoran in New York describes how she got into real estate a built her career. Beth discusses the changes in the real estate market she’s seen throughout her career, focusing on the changes brought by Covid-19. Beth also describes how interior design integrates with her real estate career and how these two complement each other. Last, Beth discusses open houses and how the whole concept has changed recently.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Beth Benalloul can be reached at (917) 749-6522 and [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Have you ever wanted to work with developers? Well, today we discuss how? Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Beth battle specifically about developers and how to build those relationships. Pardon the pun on build there. But yes, how to develop Oh, another time those relationships. Sorry, no more puns. Not sorry, probably everyone’s like, Alright, no more puns. But before we get to Beth, please, as a quick reminder, tell a friend about this show, specifically another realtor and other real estate professional or somebody that would love to hear top producer interviewed so that they can learn, for example, how to work better with developers, tell us send him a link to our podcast, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is streamed there. But if you’re listening through a podcast app, take just a moment and leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. So we can continue to do more of what you like and improve the stuff that you don’t like because this is for you. This is your show. It’s not mine. I just talked through it. But I only do things that our audience says hey, do more of that or less of that really, really helps. So please leave us a review. But enough about that. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Beth Bendele.

Right today on the show we are back from the Corcoran Group in New York City. Let me tell you more about that. Beth battle is a highly accomplished Manhattan real estate broker who’s received coveted awards for her fine work that include membership and Corkins prestigious President’s Council, placing her among the top 25 brokers in the entire company, but has also been recognized numerous times as a top producer when the Wall Street Journal’s real estate, sorry, the Wall Street Journal real trends. Additionally, she’s also earned the status in the Corcoran group’s multimillion dollar club every year since 2005. Beth listens and pays close attention to her clients needs. She’s on top of every detail of their transaction. She’s sold condos, coops and townhomes all over Manhattan, she delivers superior results to both local and out of town clients. Working with buyers, she has an uncanny ability to find the perfect property for their budget and lifestyle. Beth has even sold properties to buyers sight unseen. Sellers respect her outstanding track record for selling her exclusives quickly and profitably. Please, everybody follow Beth on Instagram, which is at Beth Sinaloa, which is b e t h BENALLOUL. And I will have a link to that in our show notes. So you don’t have to spell that out and Instagram. Just go to our show notes. Click click the link and you’ll be able to follow her and see what she’s doing. Beth, welcome to the show.

Beth Benalloul 4:21
Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited to be here. And you know, ask away.

D.J. Paris 4:28
And I’m glad we’ve had a couple of your friends on our show to which Beth was nice enough to tell me and probably even more more than that. So we are excited. It’s funny at you know, it really is even when there’s one point I think it’s 1.6 million realtor or something like that maybe 1.4 in the country. It’s like it’s funny so often, people who are you know, these top 1% agents like yourself really do know agents and I know of course there’s lots of you know, people in New York that you would know just because you come across them but it’s amazing to me how Often, people we have on the show no, even people we’ve had on the show from other places. It seems like a small community of top top producers. So we’re grateful to have you. I always Oh, you’re welcome. Well, we bet this is I’ll just give our listeners and viewers a little behind the scenes. Beth is actually at a sales office right now she snuck into a, a conference room. And this is how busy she is. She’s a working mother, she runs a group, a team. She’s one of the top agents in New York City. And she’s at a sale center in between appointments right now. So we are really lucky to have her. And so thank you, thank you. Because, again, I don’t know how you have the time to do anything that you do, but you do it. So let’s start at the very beginning of your career, because I first would like to know, how you got into real estate, why you got into real estate? And then what did you do to get started? How did you start building your business?

Beth Benalloul 5:54
Okay, so I have been in the real estate business for a little over 17 years. I’ve been at Corcoran the entire time. Yeah, which is, which is very unusual. Most brokers jump around, but I’ve been at corporate for a very long time. I originally started after my husband and I bought our first apartment. And I had gotten pregnant, and I was frantically looking for an apartment. And I started you know, at the time, everything was in print ads. So I used to go through the Sunday newspapers, and I would scour all the ads for apartments. And it became like, my second job in life was to find this an apartment. Anyway, we ultimately bought our first apartment here in New York City. And I gave birth, and at the time I was in the fitness industry, I was doing personal training and teaching spinning and all sorts of aerobics classes. And I, after having a baby, I was like, you know, I really want to do something else, you know, something that was maybe a little less physical that I could, you know, grow into, you know, more of a career. And that was when I decided to get my real estate license. So I got the license. And I had a, actually a client of mine, one of my personal training clients knew somebody at Corcoran, so they connected me and I went in for an interview, I had no experience, I really, you know, besides buying my own apartment, really didn’t know what I was doing. But I sort of jumped in from the ground up, and, you know, started started working. And that was in 2005, the market at the time was very, very difficult for a new broker. Because every single apartment would go into multi beds. So you know, and at the beginning, when you’re first starting, you work with a lot of buyers. So you know, I would go and take my buyer out and she’d find something you know, she’d like, and I’d run back to the office to write up the offer. And by the time I got it to the broker, they would say, Well, you know, sorry, we have 17 other offers, and this one’s cash. And this one’s above ask, and, you know, here I was, you know, advising my client, let’s go in 10,000 below the Ask let’s dancing contingency. You know, I was I was really winging it. But I’ll never forget that the first sale and this shows you how hard I was working the first sale that I did. At the closing, my client bought me a gift. Because she said she had never seen someone work so hard to make a sale happened that she came with a beautiful Tiffany bowl and gave it to me at the closing. Oh, it was very funny.

D.J. Paris 8:30
That is very, very funny and very sweet. And we should also just for anyone who’s listening who isn’t all that familiar with the New York market, sort of explain and not in any real detail, but just obviously we know that New York is one of the most expensive markets in the country to live, which is why the vast majority of people rent and and even rentals are oftentimes Realtors exclusively might even focus on rentals because that of course is just a bigger market. There’s more and more people to to have as clients on New York of course very expensive to own. And I remember speaking of New York in 2005 Just because you mentioned that that time my sister and I bought bought she bought a condo in the West Village I bought a condo here in New York or in Chicago and hers was only 475 square feet it’s a one bedroom floor walk up the West Village no air conditioning everything was kind of miniature miniature like a smaller fridge a small everything was kind of skinny and small. And although when when she sold it you know five years later let’s say something like that. She sold it for like $100,000 profit I sold mine for like, you know I lost money on my so it’s but but the funny part is is then she was like well now I’m priced out of the neighborhood. I can’t I can’t afford to live here anymore. But But it ended up working out but the New York market is is really challenging. Did you start out doing rentals at all? Or was that just not a thing that that appealed to you?

Beth Benalloul 9:59
I never Because I never did rentals. I mean, I do them now. But I really do them primarily for clients of mine who buy apartments as investments, and then I rent the apartments for them. But my business has been primarily sales. And it was basically that way from the beginning. And I’m not sure, you know, I did a few rentals here and there, but for the most part, I focused on sales.

D.J. Paris 10:20
Yeah, it’s funny, you were talking about, you know, 17 years ago, working with your first buyer and being in multiple offer situations. I remember I bought during that time, low interest rates. And and also, we’re sort of in a slump. I mean, rates are rising. Now, of course, but but we’re sort of in a similar is it? Does it feel similar now than it did when you first started?

Beth Benalloul 10:41
Well, it definitely feels similar. And I feel like at this point in my career, I’ve been through a few market cycles. And, you know, it’s interesting, because sometimes broke, you know, brokers who just start will say to me, like, you know, does it get easier? Does it get, you know, and obviously, certain markets are easier to make deals than than others? There’s no question. But it’s always, you know, the real estate business is always challenging, because it’s either a supply issue or a demand issue, or an inventory issue, you know, so I feel like in a market where things move very quickly, oftentimes your buyers get outbid. And then, of course, in a market that moves slowly, if you’re working with sellers, you know, it’s hard to manage those expectations. Why isn’t my property selling? So I would say the market that we’ve been in here in New York for the last year has felt more similar to 2005, in the sense that things are moving quickly. Although to your point, now, with the increase in interest rates, I’m feeling it’s cooling a little bit. You know, New York is also in my mind, very dependent on the stock market. We have a lot of Finance, Financial people, Wall Street people, and the markets obviously been, you know, in freefall,

D.J. Paris 11:51
tumultuous, tumultuous. Yes, yesterday, I believe was the single largest drop it since 2020, which again, just a couple of years, but it was, it was a big drop yesterday.

Beth Benalloul 12:03
So I think that that also has a direct effect on our local market, probably more than other places, you know, feel it, especially in the luxury market.

D.J. Paris 12:12
Yeah, that makes sense. New York, certainly known for finance and market related it, you know, jobs. And, and also, you know, with a pandemic, and the fact that, you know, going back to sort of market type jobs, securities, jobs, you know, people who trade and are in that space, and not and I know, this happened in Chicago, because we have, we have an options. We have a whole Mercantile Exchange here, and, you know, similar to what New York has, and now a lot of those jobs where they be on the floor trading, and really, physically, there are now algorithmic and so it’s computers doing a lot of it. So I’m curious have, have you noticed that the financial part, you know, with COVID? Are people, you know, working more remote? Where is that affecting your business at all, or

Beth Benalloul 12:59
so, I mean, certainly in 2020, I think New York was probably the most affected by that, because we had a huge, you know, number of people who sort of fled the city, whether they went to, you know, south or to The Hamptons, or to New Jersey, or just the outskirts. I think a lot of that did reverse in 2021. And we saw a lot of those people come back, I think it was a variety of reasons, the schools in September of 2021, no longer offered a remote option. So even if you were only part time in your office, if your child was in school in New York City, they had to be here five days a week, which I think brought a lot of people back. But yeah, I mean, we’ve definitely seen the market has shifted because of the pandemic. And it’s shifted, you know, I would say, in a variety of ways, some people who were in smaller apartments and then fled the city only wanted to come back to larger apartments or apartments with had an outdoor space, or, you know, something that had an extra room that they could work from home in. And I think even now, you know, two years after the pandemic started, there are a lot of people that are still working. I don’t know if it’s full time from home, because I think a lot of the businesses now are hybrid. We’ll see how, you know, we’ll fast forward another two years and see how that goes. I mean, some people think it’ll be less hybrid more in office. And then you have other people you speak to the thing quite the opposite. So I don’t know. You know, I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do think it’s not wise to bet against New York because New York seems to be very resilient city

D.J. Paris 14:32
very resilient. Yes. Yeah. And, and there’s just a finite space, a very finite, finite amount of space where people can live of course, within within Manhattan and, and and a lot of people and so is it is it more difficult now finding properties that do have more physical space for people to work at? I would think it would have to be although, again, you play or you play more in the luxury space where maybe that’s more more calm. And then, but curious if that’s changed for you, are you looking for different, different qualities now in properties for your client,

Beth Benalloul 15:06
we say there’s, there’s definitely been a shortage of inventory and certain, you know, price categories or room sizes, or, you know, apartments with certain three, four or five bedrooms, obviously, those are limited. But you know, the other thing we’re starting to see now is you have people who moved out of the city, who don’t want to commute even two or three days a week. So I think we’re going to probably see an increase in even smaller apartment sales, where they have a place to crash two or three nights a week while they’re here. Because they’re going to want to have, you know, even if it’s not a huge apartment, if they’re living out in Westchester, they may want to have a place just to stay for a couple nights. So, you know, again, that brings up the smaller units, and then those people who are training out of those can trade into the bigger units.

D.J. Paris 15:52
I have a question about coops in New York. And again, most of the country, I think our listeners aren’t that familiar with coops, New York is kind of the co op hub of the country. To my to my understanding Chicago has, we have some but not not very, you know, less than probably 1%. I am curious with coops because for those of you that aren’t as familiar, there isn’t a sort of an interview process that a buyer needs to go through with a co op board. And you know, it depends they’re going to talk about financing, they’re going to talk about maybe even income and just just a general get to know you. Do we like this person? Do they seem like they’d be a good fit? Has it ever happened? And I I’m just curious, and you don’t have to give exact specifics, of course, but has it ever happened where you get all the way to the coop interview. And then in that interview goes south for some reason where maybe it’s a personality clash, or the coop boards kind of goofy or something just goes wrong, or the coop board goes, you know, where I don’t think we’re gonna move forward. Has that happened ever to you

Beth Benalloul 16:51
know, it’s happened to me twice in my career. And so what I will say is that both times in my mind, so typically, you won’t get to the phase of an interview, like an in person interview until they have reviewed your package. And in your package, you have already laid out all your financing, all of your, you know, your financial qualifications, you’ve put in personal reference letters, you’ve basically told them who you are. So I had it happen once years ago on a very, very big sale. And I had the listing and the buyers came through another broker. And after the interview, I got a call from the seller. And the seller says You won’t believe this. I thought they were a shoo in. They were the most qualified, perfect couple. And I said what do you mean, what would I believe he goes, they’re rejecting the purchaser. I thought he was joking when he said it because it just was unfathomable. So I said What do you mean, they’re rejecting the for the purchaser. He says they walked into the interview. And within five minutes of them asking questions, the wife burst out in tears and says, we’re in a terrible marriage and we’re getting divorced. No, I laughing I didn’t know at the time. I wasn’t laughing. And I said I had to ask again. Are you serious? And he said yes. Apparently, they were going to buy this apartment. And I guess over the course of the process of the transaction, because oftentimes coops take some time to put together the package and go through the board. They decided they’re getting divorced. And they asked the board to please turn down the application so they wouldn’t have to go through litigation for that deposit. Well, that

D.J. Paris 18:31
makes sense. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, what? Uh, yeah. Gosh, that is that is interesting. So that really adds another layer. And you said it’s only really happened twice, but still twice.

Beth Benalloul 18:42
Yeah, the second time, I also think it was the situation. The woman who was buying the apartment was very eccentric. And the board was very conservative. And I think she must have said something in the interview that they just really didn’t like. I couldn’t I wasn’t there. So I can’t pinpoint what it was. But you know, I was nervous for her to go into the interview. That’s not a great sign.

D.J. Paris 19:08
Maybe we can hire somebody to play you and send you to there’s a lot of actresses in New York. Boy, that is? Well, I did not mean to bring up any any negative experiences, but but I always wondered

Beth Benalloul 19:21
that level of complexity in terms of Yeah,

D.J. Paris 19:25
I remember my sister when she went for her Co Op interview. She had my sister’s totally normal and fine and did fine. But I think I remember her saying it’s sort of feels like I’m going in naked. And they’re they’ve already looked at, you know, everything about me. And I just hope that they say good enough for us. And of course, but I would so you started out in in really in fitness, right? You started in fitness, and then transition to a totally different career. And by the way, I’m going to pause for a second I have a video that I’m going to share I was telling Beth just before we started about this fit He or she made, and I apologize, I forgot the name of it already, but I’m gonna put it in the show notes. But it’s kind of a very simple intro to bath and sort of who she is what she’s about. It’s very cool. It’s very fast paced, but but fun. And I think it’s such a great example of what any one of our listeners could consider putting together for themselves. And I love it because she just like, here’s what I’m into. And of course, fitness being being a big part of your lifestyle. And you’re like you rattled off two or three different gyms that you’re like, Well, I go to one of these three places, because, of course, you know, you’re really into into staying in shape. I am, I am curious. So this this video is awesome. So look for it in our show notes, and definitely click on it, it’s just such a such a cool thing. And I don’t see a lot of sort of little, you know, video clips like that, that Realtors do. So I think that’s really cool. But I’m curious. So you made this transition from fitness to real estate? You know, you had your first client had some challenges, but got it done, then how do you keep growing from there? Were you part of a team? Were you just on your own? I’m curious on what you did.

Beth Benalloul 21:06
I was totally on my own. And at the time, like it’s this, it’s really the same advice that I would give somebody who’s starting on my team today, right? Like, where are you getting the clients from? And how are you growing the business. So and I sort of, you know, obviously, things have changed, and the business has evolved in a lot of ways. But I would say the, the main way is to be in front of people, right. And that can be your own sphere of influence. So for example, someone who just started on my team, I told her to go through all of her, you know, personal contacts, past business contacts, you know, people from her children’s school, anyone you know, at any sort of, you know, arm you can reach out to, and put together your mailing list, you know, you do a monthly newsletter every month, I personally do that. The other thing, which really helped me at the beginning, which may be a little bit less fruitful today, just the way open houses are handled that you know, during the pandemic, but every Sunday, when I started in the business, I would do an open house, and I didn’t have listings of my own. So I used to run them for other agents. And the way it works in New York is if you run it in the you know, for somebody else, and there’s a buyer who doesn’t buy that apartment, you can work those buyers. And so at the beginning, I did a lot of that. And I would, you know, you chase a lot of leads that don’t go anywhere, because there’s a lot of lookers, so to speak. But that was, you know, one of the ways that I got started, and I did a couple of my first deals from there. And then of course, you know, family and friends and referrals, and then you start getting business from other business and things like that. So, you know, it’s not, it doesn’t happen overnight. But I would say if you just keep grinding, little by little, it’s like you get something from here, and then you list something and then you get another listing from that listing. And that’s sort of the it’s an organic growth, I guess. I am

D.J. Paris 23:01
I’m sorry, I’m gonna go just back to your video for a second. I forgot the point I was going to make. But one thing I wanted to mention, sorry. And I will get right back to two sphere of influence stuff and open houses because I do have a question about that. When you watch that video, and again, I’m sorry, I’m going a bit out of order here. But I wanted to make this point and my memory is terrible. So but what’s great is the very beginning shows the insight of Beth’s home, her and her husband and their children’s home. And it is absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous. But aside, you’re welcome outs aside from that, it really lets you sort of understand her style, which you’re only in your home for about maybe 10 seconds or so maybe 15 seconds. She’s not like doing a tour. She’s not she’s more just like okay, let’s go and she walks out the door. But you do get a sense of kind of who you are at home. And I think that is also super unique. So I if you when you watch this watch for those first 15 seconds. And notice what you think about Beth. And she by the way, she’s in like almost like a casual, almost like on her way to the gym kind of like outfit. She’s not she’s not dressed up. I mean, there’s other parts of the video where you’re really dressed up and look, you know, like you’re on your way to a showing or something. But this is just you in the morning, hey, this is me with your cup, like I think you might have even had coffee with yourself. And I thought that is so cool, because and not of course not all of us have homes that maybe we want to show off. And not that you’re showing off but just just demonstrating like this is who I am. And it really like I saw that and I immediately thought wow, she knows how to style a home. And that would be really valuable to me if I was a buyer because she’d be able to look at rooms and say I know what we can do with this and I know you’re not an interior designer but the fact that you’re that you renovated your own home which we didn’t talk about but you did. And you I’m sure you you know designed it and it is it is really a great little subtle thing to learn about your skills inside of a house. If that makes any sense at all.

Beth Benalloul 24:59
Yeah, well That’s definitely true. That’s actually my third house that I’ve done. And I’m extremely into it. I’m not a designer, I have no design training. But I spend my day with floor plans and finishes. And I’m very good with that. And usually when I’m out with one of my buyers, I can definitely like show them how to re envision the space or change the floor plan to make it you know, more optimal. So I would definitely say that’s one of my, my stronger points. So it’s really impressive that you picked up on that,

D.J. Paris 25:30
well, I’m a marketing person. So I’m always looking at things like that saying, like, what are the feelings I’m getting, as I’m watching. And of course, we learn a lot more about you other than just the few seconds that you’re in your house, but those few seconds. And I think that the fact that you did that first is almost like a really interesting first impression. I just thought that was a really smart, interesting way. Again, I, I’m always thinking of branding and market. But anyway, I want to also talk to you about something that you are also really well known for, which is working with developers, this is this is oftentimes thought of as like the Holy Grail for realtors, it’s like, oh my gosh, if I could just sit inside a sales center at a development and you know, take walk ins and win that business from the developer. Boy, my life is on Easy Street. And I just want to learn more about how you started working with developers and any advice you have for our listeners who might think, Gosh, I’d like to develop those relationships, too.

Beth Benalloul 26:25
Yeah. So I originally started many years ago, when I was asked to finish the sales of a building. So basically, what that means is my company was handling the overall sales and marketing for the entire building, where they might have sold out 200 units out of 210. And there were what they call leftovers that were remaining. And instead of continuing having a full time sales team there, they gave it to a resale broker, which is what I am. And that’s actually how I initially got started doing it. It was many years ago. And it was on a project that had been very successful. And I took over I want to say it was five units at the time. And one of the units was the penthouse of the building. Oh, wow. Yeah, so it was a very big sale. And I remember at the time, the building was very far east, and every broker that had come to see the project was like, good luck, you’ll never sell that. Good luck. Good luck, people used to say you’re gonna have to put some a brown bag over someone’s head, so they don’t know where they’re located to get them there. Long story short, I ended up not only selling it, I sold it in a bidding war for I think $650,000 over the ask. And it achieved the highest price in that location that had ever been achieved. So it was a huge, huge success. And it was a great project. And I really enjoyed it. And from there, I went on to take other what I’ll call leftovers in a building. I then. So I had done, I’ve done a quite a few of these at this point. I was then approached to do a project from a developer, that was a ground up project. And I got in sort of the building the structure was up, but it wasn’t finished. And we sold that. And I will tell you, that was a very big challenge. Because we got into it. The market was softening, you know, and oftentimes with these developments, it’s timing, right? So you have a very robust market, things move very quickly. Obviously, various things go on different tax changes in New York City and things like that. And that one, I started more from the ground up, but it was a, I was on that project for three years. And it was a lot of time. So it wasn’t you know, I think sometimes people think, Oh, you just walk in and make sales. And it’s definitely definitely not that. I’m working on a project now with a developer that’s a hole in the ground. And that one, I’ve been involved in every single step since inception. So I have analyzed every floor plan every where every door opens where every sink is. And you know, we haven’t even finished the we haven’t even finished the finishes yet. We’re still finalizing the floorplans. But that one I’m super excited about because that one is the first one I’ve been in from day one.

D.J. Paris 29:19
How many years from the time that you started working with that till the time where somebody can actually move in? Do you have an estimate? I’m

Beth Benalloul 29:26
just curious. It probably three to four years.

D.J. Paris 29:29
That’s so you’re gonna work on this for three to four years. That’s amazing. And so this is not always quick, easy. Transactions, right?

Beth Benalloul 29:41
I would say the opposite of that. It can be that if you come in at the end and you get a swing on the market, that’s good. But if you’re really going after development, and you’re working with the developer who’s starting from day one, then there’s a lot of things that go into it that I don’t even think people realize, you know, doing spreadsheets so they can get fined answering and presenting to the bank. And, you know, going through floor plans, really, you know, we we had an on the building that I’m working on now, which I’ve been on for about a year and a half now. I mean, we just recently flipped half the building, because we realized that views on one side, were going to be superior to the other side. So all the floor plans we had done, we ended up rearranging half of them. So it’s really a lot that goes into it. Yeah, pricing it and trying to, you know, pin the pricing, when oftentimes you’re still a year away from launching. So you almost have to predict what’s going to be you know, so it’s challenging, but it’s fun. And it’s an it’s exciting.

D.J. Paris 30:42
I’m curious, I wanted to ask about the first development on your site on the far east side that you felt that or that other realtors who had tried said bad location? Not not great views? Yeah, how did you end not only did you sell it, but you had bidding war. So what do you think you did differently? Just because I know everyone’s wondering, I wonder what she did if there’s anything tangible, that you feel you did differently or better than the other agents that came before you.

Beth Benalloul 31:12
So in that particular situation, the developer was very open to making changes. And what we did was we hired a staging team, the apartment had not been staged, and it had sort of been shown under construction. So we ended up we decided we were going to pull it and then relist it when it was completely finished and staged out, she and I literally hand picked every single pillow that was in that apartment. And once it was staged, it honestly looked amazing. And when we first listed it again, it was a little slow at the beginning. And then all of a sudden, we had three parties who were all interested and had amazing outdoor space, gorgeous views. Really high ceilings, and the buyer who bought it I’m still friendly with her. She’s She loves living there. It was it was a really good success story.

D.J. Paris 32:01
I’m curious too, about staging. So when you’re listing properties that our resales Not, not new developments? What, and I just don’t know the New York market as well. So I’m curious, what percentage of the time do you bring in professional stagers or are staged it professionally? Versus just using whatever is currently in the in the unit?

Beth Benalloul 32:23
So I would say I mean, that varies a lot, right? Because it varies on so many factors, right? Is the person living there as the apartment already? Does it already look, okay? You know, and of course, how they live, and is there a tenant in place, I mean, so it’s there’s a big, there’s sort of a big net there, I would say almost every apartment I go into to sell, I do some elements of staging. But some element can be me having them go in clean out closets, change bed linens, put out white towels, you know, clearing things out and putting them to storage, and then it can go all the way to emptying the entire apartment and putting in all new furnishings, painting window treatments, and I’ve done both, you know, it just depends on the on the individual circumstances of the seller. You know, I ended up also selling a lot of estate apartments. And I always try to get them to stage if I can, not all the states will have the budget for it. But typically, what we do is we’ll empty the apartment, we’ll paint it white, sometimes we’ll do some like surface work just to make it look better. And then I can also virtually stage it from the back end. So that when people see the photos, at least it’s looked staged. So I would say almost every apartment that I sell, there’s some type of staging, it just can be very minimal, or it can be you know, the full gamut.

D.J. Paris 33:49
It seems like your ability to do interior design is really one of your sort of not secret sauces, because of course anyone can learn to develop those skills. But it seems to be a pretty important part of, of what you offer. Right? And I’m, I’m just curious, you know, how you started to learn, you know, interior design? Was it something that you just were into on your own? Or did you develop it once you became a realtor? Or how did you develop

Beth Benalloul 34:20
it? I’ve always been like this, I’ve always, you know, I’m very into home decor. And I would say it was even before way before I got into this business. And you know, I also think it’s how you know, maybe how you grow up like I’ll just give a funny example. But my grandmother bless her heart is still alive. She’s 98 and she lives alone. So my husband whenever we go to visit her, he always comments he’s like, I’ve never met anyone her age who lives the way she does. Everything is in its place. Everything is neat, and it looks completely formal right now. The place hasn’t been redone.

D.J. Paris 34:55
I think we might have lost you. Sorry, you’re still there. I just don’t hear your voice. Oh, Oh, there you are.

Beth Benalloul 35:01
Okay. Yeah. So I was saying that anytime I go to visit my grandmother, who’s 98, her house is in perfect shape. Okay. She has not redecorated in 60 years, but it’s still good. And my mom also basically lives that way. So I think it’s a little hereditary. Now. I spend my whole day looking at luxury apartments, and homes, townhomes. So I have like a pretty good eye for it. But a lot of my friends even tell me like you’re in the wrong business, you should be in house flipping, because you’re good at like going in, fixing it up. And moving on. So maybe one

D.J. Paris 35:38
day thought about doing Have you thought about doing some of that

Beth Benalloul 35:40
all the time, all the time. And I know there are brokers that do it on the side. But it really is a full time job to do that. If you’re gonna really do it, you know, professionally.

D.J. Paris 35:51
I want to take a quick pause for a talk about one of our sponsors. And then I want to ask Beth, a question about you’d mentioned open houses at the beginning. And I know that, of course, that that is such a so many of the people we’ve had on our show that is part of their story. And it’s usually almost 100, almost 100% of everyone we’ve interviewed talks about the importance when they started at open houses. So I wanted to ask a question about that. But before we do, I want to tell you just real quickly about our episode sponsor, which is one of my favorite companies in the real estate tech space, which is called follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for the show, which the CRM that’s talked about more than any from our guests is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort and don’t take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the United States uses follow a boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 additional outside systems. So if you have other tools, you’re using no problem they can integrate with it. So you can keep your current tools and lead sources. And here’s the best part. They follow a boss a seven day a week support. You know, agents of course work on the weekends you need support during that time follow up boss will help you get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM, that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is more than twice the amount they give for anyone else. So and by the way, no credit card required, they’re so confident you’re going to use their system after the 30 days, that they’re just going to give you the 30 days to try. But only if you’ve visit this special link. So I want everybody to visit follow up boss.com forward slash real again, follow up boss.com forward slash real to do your free 30 day trial, see if you like it, and then I know you will keep using it. So follow up like a boss with a follow up boss. Thanks for the pause there. Beth, I am curious, how important for agents who are really looking to get to that next level? Um, how important are open houses today? I know you’re probably so busy, you don’t oftentimes get to do as many as you used to. But how important are they for for lead generation to finding buyers? Maybe not necessarily for that property, but certainly, you know, for other properties.

Beth Benalloul 38:13
So what happened here in New York is a little different than I would think in most of the country. So during the pandemic, we were under a lot of restrictions in terms of showing apartments. And a lot of it had to do with buildings, right? So the building would restrict you, you could only bring in two people a day or three people a day and they had to be pre registered. And you know, it made things very difficult. Many of those restrictions have loosened. However, one thing that I have noticed that has stayed is that most open houses now are by appointment. So you actually have to schedule in advance that you’re going to come or send your buyers to those open houses. So for example, the first open house I ever did was in Mother’s Day of 2005. The broker who was running who had the listing said to me, okay, here’s a show sheet, and here’s a sign in sheet and he gave me one piece of paper, okay, and it had 20 slots on it. So I said, okay, okay, and I was very eager, and I had my pen and every person who came in, you know, I’d say, please sign in and give me your email and your phone number. We had 87 signings

D.J. Paris 39:21
on Mother’s Day, which you would think nobody’s going out on Mother’s Day, but

Beth Benalloul 39:26
Mother’s Day. So I was like, I didn’t I mean, I my head was spinning. You know, it was like my first weekend out. You know, today, I think that’s pretty much unheard of, and maybe maybe not in, you know, certain areas of the country. But in New York, I think that would be unheard of. You know, I’d be happy now if I got 18 people much less 87. So I think while they’re important, and I would definitely encourage new brokers to do them because I think it’s a great place to try to source active buyers. I don’t think they’re as important as they were just because I think there’s well less, maybe less people, right? So it’s like less people, your chances of converting are less. The only flipside to that is that if you’re going to an open house, you’re probably more serious. And it’s not just like a Sunday activity.

D.J. Paris 40:14
I think that’s good. I think that’s good advice still relevant. Maybe the numbers are different than they used to be. But and now that people are going back to in person activities, maybe we’ll see those numbers climb a bit who?

Beth Benalloul 40:28
Yeah, yeah, I

D.J. Paris 40:29
agree with what we should also mention that, that Beth, by the way, is always looking for, for, of course, new clients. In particular, for a lot of our listeners, if you have clients that are moving to New York, for example, and you don’t practice in that space. In that area, then, of course, you know, Beth would love the opportunity to chat her, she and her team. And also, if you’re a realtor in the New York area, and you’re looking to maybe see if there’s a group that’s a better fit than what you’re currently at, or firm. And of course, you know, Beth would be happy to take a look and see if you might be a fit for her team. But if anyone out there would like to work with you, whether it’s to send referrals your way or just to maybe learn more about your group, in case they want are looking to make a change, or just a buyer or seller out there listening to our show, who says, you know, I am I need somebody to represent me in New York, what’s the best way that any of our listeners can reach out to you?

Beth Benalloul 41:26
Honestly, I’m always, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I’m always on my phone. So I would say call email text. And I’ll make myself available for anyone who you know, has a question or just wants to talk about the market or referral. I’m happy to, you know, work with you on that

D.J. Paris 41:44
as well. And we’ll have all of that information in our show notes. So you don’t have to write anything down. And I’m curious about too. How often because New York, of course, we know as people get older, oftentimes they go they moved down south, maybe make a beeline for Florida, which is probably the most common destination for New York residents. Yeah, yeah. How often? Are you working with agents down in Florida saying, I’ve got somebody who’s moving down there was looking for another property, or whatever it is, that’s got to be I imagine a big, big part of your business.

Beth Benalloul 42:18
I mean, honestly, I’ve had, you know, when someone sells here, they’re going somewhere, right. So whether it’s Florida, I recently had two clients move to South Carolina. I’ve had someone moved to North Carolina, someone moved recently out west. So I just think, you know, it’s sort of everywhere. I even had a client moved to Singapore recently. I mean, work related. But yeah, so definitely, if you know, I’m happy to meet anyone who could potentially be, you know, I could send a referral to So

D.J. Paris 42:49
yeah, that’s, that’s another great point. So if you are in an area where people retire too, or just get second properties, yeah, I just interviewed a an agent from Charleston, which you talk about South Carolina, just actually this last week. And he goes, Oh, my God, it is because of course, we know people are moving to Nashville, South Carolina, Idaho, lots of these places. So you know, Beth, would obviously love to talk to anyone who is considering New York, or is maybe just moving within New York. She is a great resource. And I want everybody to also follow Beth on Instagram, so you can find her. And again, there’s a link in our show notes. But as at Beth battling with her first and last name on Instagram, and you can take a look. And she’s got a website that is currently under construction. So we’re going to once that goes live, we’re going to make sure our audience knows about that. But Beth, I want to thank you for being on our show. You have been a fantastic guest. Really given our audience. Oh, you’re so welcome. Really, on behalf of our audience, we say thanks, because so much great content and advice and loved hearing your story, as well. And on behalf of again of the audience. Thanks, Beth. And on behalf of Beth and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to listen, watch support our show, the best way you can help us continue to grow is just tell a friend, think of some other real estate professional that you know that could really benefit from hearing this great conversation with Beth and send them a link to our show. Easiest way to do that if the person you’re sending it to does not not a podcast person, no problem. Just send them to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is right there. Or they can just pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real, hit that subscribe button. And also please last thing please leave us a review whatever podcast app you might be listening, whether it’s Apple podcasts or Google Play or Stitcher, Spotify wherever, Pandora, let us know what you think of the show. All suggestions help us continue to evolve. So thank you, to our listeners and audience for sticking around staying throughout this whole episode. Beth is amazing. We’re so glad to have had her on the show one of the very top agents in New York and within the Corcoran Real Estate Group, which is we know it’s such a powerful organization and but Wait. We are so excited to continue to watch your career from from here, wherever we may be in the country. So thank you, Beth. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Beth.

Beth Benalloul 45:12
Thank you. Thank you so much.

Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.

Chris Linsell from TheClose.com discusses social media strategies that bring business to agents. Chris also emphasizes the importance of selecting the right social media platform that suits best the agent’s character and business. According to Chris, is it crucial for every agent to know where their audience is so their content is shared directly to them. Finally, Chris explains why agents should not aim to go viral.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Chris Linsell can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
which social media strategies actually result in getting you more clients? We discussed that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast we hire real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lin sell from the close. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the closed.com. And let me tell you more about the clothes the clothes.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals so they cover real estate marketing, lead generation technology and team building strategies from the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level. Please visit the clothes.com That’s th e Cl O s e.com. To check out their articles. You can also subscribe to their newsletter when they’ll send you an email every time a new article goes live with us as always is crystallin Sal, he is the staff writer. He is a staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Chris is the closest resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing lead gen transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan. Chris has been part of hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside compounds. When he isn’t writing you or servicing his clients, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage of his community theatres production. In fact, Chris just got back from a week of trout fishing. So very glad to have him back. Chris, welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to have you,

Chris Linsell 3:01
DJ, thanks for having me. Yep. I just spent a week in the Blue Ribbon trout streams of Michigan, disconnected from all of you lovely people. So everyone who sent me emails, I’m working on it getting back to you, everyone who sent me, you know, derisive comments on Twitter. I’m probably not getting back to you. But I’m gonna read them all. So you know, keep it common. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 3:25
it’s, I am very excited to see what happens with Elon Musk’s Twitter bid, whether that goes through, I think that could really revitalize the platform that so many people just are not engaging with anymore. And I’m hoping that it’s such a great place to have conversations and some not so great conversations too. But but if they can clean up some of the toxicity of it and just, you know, somehow figure out how to have more constructive conversations. I think, I think Twitter maybe maybe due for a renaissance. We’ll

Chris Linsell 3:57
see. Thank you. Right. And you know, by the time this hits, the the podcast, the patent podcast services, we may know something else. My two cents is there’s no way this is going to close. But I hope it does, frankly. Yeah, I think it’d be pretty interesting. But that’s an interesting Convo relative to what we want to talk about today. What’s your social media, right? Yes. So I’m actually working on some content right now. Might be out pretty close to when this podcast gets released. So if you’re watching or listening on Facebook, got a little while to wait. If you’re checking it out on a podcast app, you this might be out now, but I’m working on some content for the clothes.com about social media content strategies, basically, some some ways that you can take social media content and make it more about your business and your goals instead of just, you know, random collections of likes and comments because one of the problems with so Some media content often is that we are measuring success with the wrong metrics. Like we think about a successful social media post is something that gets all these likes, and everyone is just in love with what you wrote, or the picture or the video you made. You get all these shares and all this social media accolade. And then most of us realize, at the end of the day, we say, Wow, that was just so fun. And I got no clients out of it, and I got no leads out of it. And I really have not advanced my business in any kind of measurable way. So what can we do to create content that actually does what we want it to do?

D.J. Paris 5:42
I absolutely agree. And let’s maybe define quickly, just what we’re talking about with, to sort of very common, and not that these are in any way mistakes, but but a common strategy for agents to use on social media, which is, I’m going to post because I just got a new listing, and I want to show off some photos of the home, I want to post because now it’s under contract, or it just closed, or I want to post because I’m heading to the gym this morning. And I want my, my my sphere of influence to see that not only am I a hard worker, I’m also staying in shape. You know, we I see a lot of those posts. It’s a lot of like, here’s what I’m doing in my personal life, or here’s the dinner I just made. Or here’s all the cool stuff I’m doing in my real estate business. That’s what I see more than anything for realtors.

Chris Linsell 6:32
Yeah, yeah. And you know, frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that content. There’s nothing wrong with the things that you said you want to do here. The only thing that I’m that when I hear those things that that I my ears perk up, and I say now wait a minute, let’s talk about this is why I didn’t hear anything in those in those those what I want out of social media that actually I would say are direct contributors to getting you to the closing table, that you can actually track towards building a better GCI, and a more dependable funnel of leads. And part of the reason that we we face that that challenge in social media content, as far as I have observed and and in my own practice, and in my practice of advising other agents is that most of us don’t have and this is this is one of the first strategies I’m going to highlight I want to highlight here is most of us don’t have a plan for what we want the people who are consuming our social media content to actually do after they after they read or watch or have, you know, experienced a post by us, most of us just think, Well, what I want them to do is like this, or comment on it, or share it. And those are okay things to want. But what else do you want, we should be thinking about social media content as not the end. But just as a step in our lead funnel. So for instance, if I’m posting about a new listing, my goal here should be creating content that is going to generate somebody’s somebody’s desire to click on the post to visit like the my website, the property web page may shoot even Zillow, if that’s what it takes. But we need to have some sort of plan for what we want these people to do after they consume our content. So if you this is my first strategy for folks, if you want to create better social media content, you need to think about your content. And then what’s the and then with your content, if you don’t have a clear, and then frankly, you’re creating a post without a purpose right now.

D.J. Paris 8:56
Yeah, so what we’re talking about is some sort of action step, whether it’s a direct action that you’re asking someone to do. If you’re making a video, perhaps say, Oh, by the way, I can help you in the same way for your situation. Here’s how to reach me, here’s how to, you know, reach out that that would be a call to action, right? Whether it’s a good call to action or not is debatable, but at least having something that they can do or like you said, visit my website, or perhaps even look at Zillow, having some sort of action step, either at the beginning of the content or the end of the content, I think can be very effective.

Chris Linsell 9:30
Totally agree. And I want to really encourage agents to not just have the step in mind, whatever that next step is, but to use that next step as your yardstick for measuring success. So for instance, if your post if you create some social media content and the desired next step is somebody to go to your website and fill out a form requesting information. Let’s say for instance, let’s say you have I’ve got a video on Facebook, all about how homes in a certain neighborhood of your target market have never been worth more. And so if you have a home in this area, reach out to me, let’s get a home valuation done for you. So you can at least understand what your options are. Your measure for success on this social media post needs to be how many people actually did this? It doesn’t that’s maybe not the only measure for success, because social media content is multi dimensional and has multiple purposes. But if you’re not actually measuring your success based on what you want to happen, it’s kind of like a runner, measuring the success of their training with metrics other than, well, how fast did they run the race. If you don’t think about how fast you run the race, you know, what you actually want to accomplish out of your training, then you are using the wrong metrics to measure your success. So make sure that you’re including that that next step as a metric for success. And if you’re not finding success, then you need to figure out how to adjust your content strategy so that you’re meeting those goals.

D.J. Paris 11:14
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, I’d like to just add a point to the measurement because I think so many agents put together a piece of content on social media, video, static image, post, something informational they’re super passionate about they take the time to make it, maybe they even edit it, they put it out there. And you know, maybe there is there was also an action step possibly at the end, and then they don’t get the results they want. And I think it’s important to remember from a branding perspective, you’re going to need to drip that action step likely on those that same audience, you know, maybe a couple of dozen times before they actually take action. So measuring just one video one post? Yes, over time, you’ll want to see which videos perform better, which which get you more clicks and action steps completed. But it’s gonna take a while to build up that brand, or do you disagree? I’m certainly happy to

Chris Linsell 13:28
hear either I think you’re right on that. And there, you’re right you we have to consider that social media is cumulative. Instead of is not these like sniper shots, once one shot and then you’re like jumping the entire funnel like social media bill is a cumulative strategy. Especially when you’re dealing with organic, non paid posting, like you’re just showing up in people’s feeds multiple times until they start to get the sense that this person knows what they’re talking about as I see them more often than not. But honestly, there are strategies within the social realm where your content is something that you should expect direct results from the first time like paid advertisement, which is very important on social media platforms. We’ll talk about that in a second. These are these you are paying for ads on these places, and you should expect an ROI. If your goal is to get form fills from an ad and you get no form fills this social media content was not successful. So keep in mind that organic strategy where you’re creating this, like consistent posting schedule of value that you’re delivering to your followers on a regular basis, that’s one thing but if you are if you’re paying to play, you should expect a return on your investment and if you’re not getting a return on your investment, you’re not doing it right.

D.J. Paris 14:53
And I also just a real quick pro tip if anyone out there is spending money on face Facebook, Google Instagram, certainly, you know any of the social platforms or even Google as a search engine themselves. If you’re paying for ads, and you’re not seeing the results you want, almost all of those services have free advisors that you can contact, who will literally look at your account, because it is complicated, it’s very complicated to set up these ads and understand the metrics and best practices. And they will literally I have done it, they will walk you through. And I, you know, I don’t know if everyone will get that kind of access, but you probably will, because they want you spending money on their platform. And they know that if you’re not successful, you’ll stop

Chris Linsell 15:34
100%. And I don’t mean to throw shade on real estate technology companies. But there is kind of this frustrating trend that I see, especially in the customer service, versus sales departments have a lot of real estate technology companies that they are very attentive, before you have signed on the dotted line, and then are a little less attentive after you’ve signed on the dotted line. The same is true when it comes to ad spend companies like but except you could always spend more with advertising platforms. So if you’ve got questions about spending money, 99% of the time, these folks are more than happy to answer, because they want you to keep doing that. So yeah, I wanted to hit on another platform, since we’re kind of talking a little bit about these, these platforms, another strategy, I mean, and this is kind of a call to the carpet, for agents, especially for those who, you know, have maybe one particular kind of content they’re most comfortable with. And they’re not really interested in branching out. The fact is, guys, not every social media platform is right for you. And I’m saying that generally. And for those of you who are listening, I want you to think about me saying this specifically to you individual listener, not every platform is right for you. And it’s not because you couldn’t be on there, you can start an account anywhere you want. But frankly, you might not be very good at the content necessary to be successful on that platform. And acknowledging that is really important. So why I use a pretty simple test when it comes to social media platforms, you want to if you can answer yes to the following three questions. You are in the right place. The first question is, Are my is my audience here? Are my are my clients here are my prospects are my leads here? Or is my audience on this platform? So as an example, if you live in Dubuque, Iowa, and you serve us, a lot of retirees or maybe farm buyers and sellers, Twitter is probably not a social media platform where you’re going to have a lot of success, because most of your audience is not their Twitter users tend to skew very heavily on the east and west coast, a little bit in the Midwest, but it’s mainly in cities like Chicago and Indianapolis and Cincinnati. But it’s a lot of Coasties. It’s a lot of younger, more affluent buyers, and sellers, it is very rarely the suburban or rural buyers and sellers. So Twitter is does not pass the audience test for you. That’s question number one is my audience here. Question number two is can I create the content that does well here, if you can’t do video comfortably, tick tock is not a platform for you. There is no other option on tick tock other than video and there are some people who are trying to like, like shoehorn bad non video content, like still

D.J. Paris 18:53
images that rotate or things like that. Yeah, that sort of stuff does

Chris Linsell 18:56
not do well on tick tock. And in fact, it is a like, if people laugh about it, you have a negative brand impact for being for putting the putting the content that does isn’t designed to be on a platform consistently on those spaces. So question number one is my audience there. Question number two, can I create the content that does well on these platforms? So tick tock, this would be video content, Instagram, this is a lot of photos and video, Twitter. This is a lot of text, some some images, but a lot of text, a lot of links a lot of what’s happening right now current events like in the market today, sort of thing. What are these Twitter’s is really runs the gamut but has a lot of like community oriented content. Pinterest has a lot of like home decor, Home Improvement home renovation curb appeal, a very visual search engine. YouTube is obviously a video a little bit longer form video, you need to find a platform where you know, you can create content that’s going to be successful there.

D.J. Paris 20:07
I’m just gonna suggest one quick one quick way, if you’re not sure where your audience, your, your, your previous clients, your existing clients or your, the people you want to work with, if you’re not sure where they spend their time, ask them send out a survey to everybody, you know, and say, Hey, I’m wanting to I’m looking to focus on one social media platform in the next year. And I just want to get curious, you can even make it anonymous. But say, you know, I’m curious on which platforms, we did this in a nonprofit that I helped with. And we found out that all that the vast majority of our, of our constituents, were on LinkedIn, we had no idea. And we went okay, well, we now have to now we’re going to publish more professional content on LinkedIn, because that’s where our audience hangs out. But we just assumed it was Facebook. And it turns out, it wasn’t, it’s, that’s a, that’s a really great point, your, your, your client base, the people who already know like, and trust you, they will respond to these sorts of questions. So ask them, that’s it. That’s a great, that’s a great, great strategy to use. So those those three questions it was, where’s my audience? Can I create content that does well on the platform, my audiences is where they’re living. And then the third question is, Can I do it consistently enough to meet the platform’s standards. So for instance, if you want to be active on Tik Tok, especially in the beginning, this is not a joke, you need to be posting five 610 times a day. Okay? If you want to be active on Facebook, this is a one post a day sort of thing. In fact, more than one post a day on Facebook is will downgrade you people don’t want to see that much from you. If you want to be active on Instagram, it’s more like to post three posts kind of depends on what you’re doing a little bit there. But you need to be able to commit to a consistent cadence, that’s going to give you the success that you want to have. Because if you are active in places where your audience is not, you’re not going to get any leads. If you’re active in places where your audiences but you’re not creating the content, they want to see, you’re not going to get any leads. And if you’re active in places your audiences, and you’re making the sort of content they want to see, but you’re not making it enough, you’re not going to get any leads. So use those three rules to answer the question of, should I be active here? Yeah. Or should I leave this one and focus somewhere else? The last question I’d like to ask you is around content. So that is that so once we determine our platform, maybe look at the frequency of posts, the type of posts we’re going to make, whether they’re videos, still images, etc. Now, we got to figure out, okay, we know where to go. And essentially what to do, we’re not exactly sure what content or you know, is is needed curious to get your thoughts on determining content ideas.

Yeah. So every one is going to be a little bit different here. So I want to give a couple of kind of more general 30,000 foot view, pieces of advice. And hopefully, this points people in the right direction. So a couple of content rules that you should consider. The first is, you should always create social media content with your audience in mind, not with you in mind, you’re not making what you want to see, you’re making what they want to see, you have to remember, this isn’t your personal video blog, where you are like a video diary, where you’re writing down all of your thoughts or putting all your thoughts down on video. So you can your children can review it for posterity, you’re doing this to make money. So create the content that is going to elicit a response from your audience, not just from the things that will create or elicit a response for you. So that’s the first first kind of big rule. The second rule is, think about your content as an emotional trigger. Whether it is a happy trigger, or an angry trigger, or a motivated trigger or a sad trigger. Social media platforms are designed to prompt a response. And they want their users to then share that content so that it prompts a response in the their users circles. And so if you think about content that prompts a response, frankly, just a copied URL from your local MLS with new listing, there’s no response that happens here. This is boring. You need to create content that prompts a response. Think about what the emotion is that you want to prompt and create content around that. No more boring content. I see so much boring content on social media and guess what it has zero likes, zero shares, zero comments, because most people don’t even see it. They’re blind to it now. And then the last piece of content advice that I would give folks is, frankly, we got to stop trying to go viral. going viral is not a goal. It’s not a goal for you, it’s almost not a goal for anyone. There are very few people in the social media space, who should have a goal of going viral. And the reason here is going viral first of all, is extremely difficult. And it happens based on factors that are almost always out of your control. And to consistency is a much better way to drive action on social media, social media platforms, reward consistent posting of quality content. So instead of trying to make that one crazy post, that’s going to get shared 1000 times you should be shooting to make 100 posts that get shared 10 times. Because that sort of consistency is going to help 99.9% of agents level up their social media game. If you’re an agent like Tyler Whitman, or Ryan serhant, in New York City, and you have millions of followers, going viral is a little bit easier, because you’ve got such a bigger base to build from. But if you have a couple of 1000 followers, frankly, 75% of them are probably not very engaged in what you’ve got going on. going viral is very difficult. So you should work on consistent content that is going to regularly elicit an emotional response and is content that is in line with the platform you’re participating in. So without going too deep into specific content suggestions, because everyone’s market is a little bit different. If you follow those rules, your social media content will be more successful.

Yeah, and just as a quick addition to that, for content, one content idea is to and there’s obviously a million different content ideas. But think about the questions you get asked by your clients throughout a transaction or prior to a transaction even starting. Those are all content ideas. They’re not might not be the right content, ideas for engagement with social media. But that is a great place to start. If you’re sort of thinking, Gosh, I don’t even know what to talk about. Well, what was the last question when your clients asked you and then turn that into a video if you want to. But there’s, we can talk about content ideas on on another episode too. But that was really helpful. In other words, just to recap, what we were talking about is choosing the appropriate platform that your clients are engaged with. And that also works for your type of content. So those are two different things. So we want to make sure we’re hanging out where our agents are, or sorry, where our clients are, and then giving content that is sort of best suited for that particular platform. And then also trying to come up with with a consistent model, a consistency model. That’s how we built this podcast. It’s how you guys have built the clothes. It’s all around a small victories as singles and doubles and supposed to homeruns singles and doubles will win the game. homeruns are great. But we focus on singles and doubles and will win. So consistency consistency, we are at the end of this episode. So I will we will say goodbye to our our friend and co host Chris Lynn, sell from the closed.com. Please everybody go visit the close.com. It’s just the best resource that we have found online for teaching agents how to grow their practice through best marketing, marketing practices, tech reviews, if you’re like thinking of adding a new system in and you want to see what what the experts say as far as different CRMs etc. lead sources, the close is the place they go deep and they go wide. And that is it is just they have great true journalists working there. So please check out the closed.com. And Chris, on behalf of everyone. As always, we say thank you for your contributions to the show. And Chris is now speaks all over the country. So we’ll have to have your calendar maybe put on our site so everyone can follow you and see if you’re coming to their town to talk because when Chris speaks people listen. And he has he just has great insight into what’s going on currently and what’s on the horizon for us realtors and the real estate industry in general. So, anyway, on behalf of Chris and myself, we also want to say thank you, and please tell a friend about the show. Tell a friend about this episode. Go visit the clothes.com and we’ll see everyone on the next episode.

Chris Linsell 29:27
Yep. Thanks, everybody. We’ll talk to you soon.

Drew Grossklaus the Director of Sales at William Means Real Estate, Charleston’s exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate discusses what’s it like to be an agent in Charleston area especially after Covid. Drew also talks about the importance of getting involved with the local associations and showing your leadership angle of personality. Drew points out the advantage of learning everything about the area you’re working in. Next, Drew discusses what the role of the firm is to the agent and the importance of the non-compete managing broker and also what is the role of the firm in helping agents generate or provide them with leads.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Drew Grossklaus can be reached at (843) 576-9483 and [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s episode we discussed the benefits of joining a small boutique brokerage. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Drew grassless, who by the way is the Sales Director for one of the one of the largest producing small boutique firms in Charleston. But before we get to Drew just a couple of quick reminders, please, as always tell a friend about our show. Just think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing from Drew for example, and send them a link to this episode or right over to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, can be streamed right there no podcast app required, or pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real, hit that subscribe button and last please leave us a review. Whatever podcast system you might be listening to this on, whether it’s Apple podcast, Google Play Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, etc. Let us know what you think of the show leave us a review. This is how we continue to grow and get better and better to help better meet your needs. So enough about that. Let’s get on to our conversation with Drew grassless.

Today on the show we have drew gross class from William means real estate in which is also Christie’s International in Charleston, South Carolina. Let me tell you more about Drew. DREW is the director of sales at William means real estate which is Charleston’s exclusive affiliate of Christie’s international real estate. He also serves as the broker in charge for the firm’s Mount Pleasant office. Now drew brings a wealth of strategic sales, marketing and analytical talent to the firm drawing on more than 20 years of real estate and development sales, also marketing advertising and promotions experience. He’s a licensed real estate agent and currently serves on the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors board of directors, which is he’s also he’s the treasurer actually of his local association, and also the South Carolina Realtors Board of Directors so he’s involved at the local and the state level. Drew graduated from the University of Northern Ireland, Ireland. My apologies drew graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in accounting and received a master’s degree from Western Illinois University not too far from where I’m recording right now here in Chicago, but please everyone visit drew at his website, which is Charleston realestate.com. Drew, welcome to the show.

Drew Grossklaus 4:06
Thank you. Thank you. And I’ve never been to Ireland so I would like to also go there but no, it is Ireland but but thank you for that.

D.J. Paris 4:15
Well, I’ve been to Ireland I’ve not been to Northern Ireland though. And there’s you know, always debate about you know, when when or if you should go to Northern Ireland but I was thinking I just saw the movie Belfast, which is all about Northern Ireland about a week ago. It’s a fascinating movie. So I’ve got that on my brain. So my apologies there But welcome, welcome to the show. Thank you drew very excited to have you here. It was Drew and I were talking prior to us going live here and we were just talking about you know how Charleston is just on everybody’s must visit list and you know right now it’s it’s just been a darling of vacation darling for gosh, I don’t even know how many years but it seems like everybody I know especially Bro bridal parties or bachelorette parties, I should say, yeah guys guys big dude guys trips there, there’s golfing that area, it’s just got about everything anybody would want.

Drew Grossklaus 5:12
Yeah. And it’s really been amazing over the last 20 years. Conde Nast, travel and leisure, we’ve been the number one city in both of those publications for years. And it really it has exploded. And then you know, then we have some famous people Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got married here. And then we’re a little nervous to say they got married and, you know, here because of the place they got married, but but but had famous people as well. And it really has become just a mecca for tourism. And it’s, it’s understandable, we have the history, the food, the beaches. So, so amazing real estate, obviously, when you combine all those things, but it is a place and it’s a place living here, and I get to visit lots of places, but and I always come back to where would I rather live than Charleston, and it is hard to think of another place. So so it’s an amazing place.

D.J. Paris 6:08
And I would imagine that since we’re we’re also familiar right now with places like Nashville, Charleston, Austin, you know, just just these places now that have been opened up for a lot of us that used to think we were chained to our physical location and through COVID started learning, oh, we can work remote. Obviously, the real estate agents maybe don’t have as much of the freedom there to do that. But as a lot of people are moving to Charleston, even just in the last few years, although it’s been going on lat long time before that, of course, I imagine. So it’s part of me thinks, Oh, it must be a great time to be an agent in that in that area, because there’s so much activity, and then I think, but there’s also got to be a lot of competition from agents as well. So I I’m curious, have you because you’ve been there for quite some time, you know, what’s it like now being an agent in that area, you know, than it was sort of prior to this big boom?

Drew Grossklaus 7:06
Yeah, so it really is, is a crazy situation to be an agent and a difficult one. And I tell agents who call me this all the time. Because it is a very sexy place, obviously to want to be because we do have and over the last couple of years remote people with remote and I’m moving from New York, Atlanta, Chicago, you know, I don’t have to be there, I want this place. It’s great. We have about 7000 agents, and we have a population of about in the Charleston Metro, you know, 400, if we expand it out 800,000 people, so that’s, that’s a lot of agents. And actually, you know, it was kind of interesting, we were up near that number in Oh, 809, the crash happened and we lost half the agents. And that probably is the number that worked out well. And now after the coming years, we built that back up to double again. So it’s, it’s, you know, it’s one of those things where if we have an agent truly relocate from somewhere where like you better have a plan for a year not to have any business, because it’s that competitive. And I will say this Charlson has a tremendous history. And there are a lot of things as far as where you grew up your name as far as the way you mark it here. So if you don’t have that you can be successful. We’ll talk about different ways I see agents being successful. But but but it’s a lot of work in Charleston, it really is. And don’t get me wrong as a real estate agent, you’re like, Well, why wouldn’t I want to sell real estate that has history and beaches and beauty? And I totally get it. But there are a lot of other agents that are saying the same thing?

D.J. Paris 8:42
Sure. Well, I think you brought up a really good point, I sort of started want to go back to it, because I think it’s not just applicable to the Charleston market, this this advice that you gave about, if you’re moving there, or you’re a new agent, for example, you know, you better have a plan, or you better be prepared to, you know, just work for a year or maybe without a whole lot of income, if any. And I think, you know, that’s probably not dissimilar from and, of course, increased competition where you are, but just in general, like newly licensed agents, of course, you know, probably no matter where they go, unless they join a team where there’s a lot of leads, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s important, as people ask me all the time, they just got their license, you know, when When can I start making money? And it’s like, just sort of depends, but, um, but I’m curious. So when you do have somebody who, who is relocating and isn’t, you know, somebody who was born raised has a great sphere of influence. And again, I think just talking about this relation to Charleston, I think is is applicable to a lot of our listeners for wherever they live. How what do you tell them to coach them to keep them motivated and sort of keep them engaged, even though it might be kind of a depressing, you know, first year or two? Sure. How do you do that?

Drew Grossklaus 9:59
Yeah, well, you know, Real Estate is sales. And so a lot of that you really got to understand a lot of things you’re doing may not show right away, right? We’re not making widgets, so you can make 10 of them and sell them right away. So I like to talk to people about building their real estate resume. And I think people, there’s a lot to that. And one of the things here, right, so an example with Charleston would be, you know, do you understand historic architecture, there’s books, there’s tours, there’s a lot of things that you can really learn a lot about historic architecture and historic real estate. And then you can obviously apply that further on to Okay, let’s talk about Beach Real Estate, it may be newer construction, but you’ll understand what to understand about hurricanes, Hurricane rated windows, and all that type of things to me, then you’ve got to figure out how you let people know that you’ve gained that knowledge. Again, I call it a real estate resume, it can have your bio of where you went to school, because again, all those little things that people find out that you know, have knowledge of or connections to you are things that you can use to help Garner business. So I usually tell them to add as well, when they go somewhere new, go to your local association and become involved in that as well get knowledge about what’s going on. You mentioned I served as treasurer, I’m actually currently First Vice President, I’ll be president in two years. Wow. I’m also on the South Carolina forums Committee, which isn’t necessarily a sexy committee to be on, when you deal with forms, but boy, do I get a lot of information knowledge about why we’re changing things that I can convey to the agents that we can talk about when they’re conversing with their clients about language and a contract. I was just at the NAR legislative conferences in DC two weeks ago, too. So and seeing kind of the whole process again, those things are time. And that’s not necessarily time to get business. But when you convey to people that you have a knowledge of the industry, it’s just huge, and it sets you apart, right, that’s how you really set yourself apart, obviously, then you add all that and if you get that resume, then it’s communication. And so, you know, I’m always however you have it an Excel spreadsheet, all the names, as much information about people as you can have, and that communication with those people. And again, then as you go to an NAR conference in legislative and you talk to people about what’s going on in the bigger world of real estate, you know, those people remember you more so than then maybe just receiving a postcard that they see from a lot of different agents that you have knowledge. So, you know, I just think doing as many things as you can be involved in to garner that knowledge that you can pass on to that client to show them hey, this is a person that knows what they’re talking about. I want to work with them.

D.J. Paris 12:50
Yeah, I boy, I couldn’t agree more, I just recently got involved. This is my second year of participating with committees at the local level. And I Boy, I wish I had done that a long time before. And just because, well, there’s a lot of reasons why but but I think you get connected to not only the probably the movers and shakers of your local market, or at least a lot of people, you just get access to people. And then also, I get connected to people who like to volunteer and also make things better. And that’s a fun energy to be around when we’re, you know, thinking about competing for deals nine hours a day, and maybe we’re in listing presentations, and we’re up against three other agents. And there’s just a lot of that competition and you know, cooperation thing. But getting involved is great, because, for me, I’ve just got access to to people who I wouldn’t have got had access to before and we get to share ideas and create plan events. And, and it also, one thing you didn’t mention, but I want to because you’re probably too humble to say it, but it also makes you look like a leader. I mean, if you now do have additional knowledge that someone else wouldn’t have who isn’t involved. And that goes a long way. I know our managing broker is very involved at the local level, we have some people involved the state level here at our company to and that does not go unnoticed by the community. And so I I could not agree more strongly with you to get involved. And it’s just a lot of fun to write.

Drew Grossklaus 14:25
Yeah, well, and I think any industry that you’re in, you know, you really shouldn’t want to engross yourself in that industry. Right? And so being a real estate agent, okay buying, selling, you know, customers, clients who get that, but to understand everything that goes on because it is your life, right? You are your own company, and you’re a company in this industry. So understand it the other the other great thing I would say and you make a tremendous point about showing that you’re a leader. It’s agents who can do this not just brokers, you know, that type of thing, but really agents And I think then that passes and shows leadership when a client wants is really looking for a real estate agent, they’re looking for someone to lead them with knowledge in their purchase. And so getting that experience as well and leadership, it shows your client that you’re, you’re a leader in getting their deal done as well. So it’s to me, it’s something that I think a lot of real estate agents maybe don’t think about and think of Morrow, okay, kind of the ball up the hill of making sales and getting listings. But But again, that bigger picture thing can really help expand your business.

D.J. Paris 15:35
And I think he brought up a good point, a really good point, too, I’d like to go back to about learning about your local market, of course, any reasonably decent real estate training program would tell you to learn your local market, but I liked what you said, which was even going sort of a step beyond and Charleston’s kind of known for all of this amazing history. And so there’s a lot of real obvious things to learn about. But it is really important that you know that history because of course, clients may ask about it, Charleston is rife with history, and to spend a year in not that you’re not also looking for business, but to really spend a year immersing yourself in that knowledge is going to make you so valuable, especially if people are moving from out of out of state, and maybe they’re not as familiar with the area, you now have this wealth of knowledge, I think it’s something that doesn’t get talked about as much as it probably should, for agents who are struggling, it’s like immerse yourself in this knowledge of the area, whether it’s historical or current knowledge, or just even studying the MLS, you know, of course, is important.

Drew Grossklaus 16:38
Well, and to add to that, right, what I say too, is think about that knowledge that there’s a tremendous amount of knowledge on the internet, right? And so these these clients now, yes, they’re going yes, they’re saying, think about what they can’t find on the internet, learn those type of things, right. So and that’s where, again, with Charleston, again, some historical architectural points, you’re probably not going to find that on MLS description of a home. Or even unless somebody digs really deep again, think about the information somebody can’t find on, you know, we won’t name the big name sites, but but something that’s in a description, that’s the type of information that people are looking for. And that doesn’t just apply to historical right, it can be okay things about a neighborhood. Sure, you know, some of those little factors of oh, there’s a great little wine and cheese place down the street. And again, that type of information where they can’t find it on the internet, and they hear you tell them information about that. And give that knowledge man that just goes so far to showing them that you know, more than again, they can just just find from typing into Google.

D.J. Paris 17:44
Right. And that’s, you know, those those big firms, or those big tech firms, which have, you know, our public and client facing that, you know, the entire MLS is not under lock and key. And it’s, it’s kind of neat, I think, and I’m curious to get your opinion, because clients, of course, now we’ll find their own properties, they don’t really need us to unless there’s something that isn’t listed. And of course, we have a mate, if there’s a private network of listings, they would need to use you, but But you know, really, you can bring all this additional knowledge that it frees up the time, I think for the agent, often, if the clients are already looking for properties on their own, they already have their list, they probably know those properties, maybe even better than the agent by that time. But they you’re right, the things they don’t know are that you know, those intangibles like what what’s it like to live in that area? You know, if you have a family and what’s, you know, what is it like for school? And what’s it like for socializing? And just having all of that knowledge is something that isn’t as easily find findable online?

Drew Grossklaus 18:43
Sure, no. And you know, a great a great one here in Charleston obviously talked about the story, but it’s travel time, right? Because you’ll see a lot of websites that say, oh, it’s eight miles. Well, you know, how is your life going to be right? Is that time taking kids certain places have you really looked at and you know, a real estate agent can say, Okay, well this is this may look like it’s a further distance away. But where are you the roads you have to travel in in Charleston where you need because we have a lot of water. So it’s very limiting. And so when you have that knowledge as a as somebody Yes, but that’s a that’s a 45 minute drive during prime time, versus this other area. That’s a 20 minute drive, but it may be 15 Miles versus eight miles, right. So because a lot of times people don’t know the weeds of kind of travel time and to me anywhere in most places we were everybody cares about travel time and that type of hiring. So you know, having that inside knowledge and say, okay, and or it might be Hey, you know, if you’re a retiree, and you really don’t need to travel these times, here’s a great area to be but boy, if you’ve got to get the kids to soccer, to valet, to those type of things, maybe we need to look in a different area, again, knowledge that you’re not just going to pop on Google, right and see that about an area.

D.J. Paris 19:58
I think too, you know, We’re sort of talking about it casually as having this knowledge. But I really think that knowledge, at least from my perspective, is maybe the knowledge that makes the difference. Oftentimes, it because I suspect many agents don’t. And again, I can’t speak for any agents in your area, but even we have about 800 agents in our company, and I’m just trying to think about how they, how many of them might go about it, and many of them aren’t going to have that knowledge. I think, I think if you go that extra mile to learn that information, and then be able to have those conversations, oh, my gosh, you are so valuable to somebody, it’s almost a guarantee that somebody’s going to go wow, I, I will gladly pay you or, you know, the Commission’s maybe aren’t going to be as important. If you can give me things that will save me 20 minutes a day on the road. You know, that’s a big thing. And it sounds like a small thing, but it’s really a big thing. buying the house is a huge thing. But all of those little things that you know, it’s like, here in Chicago, we have to think about, you know, when we buy like for buying here in the city, I thought about this, what I recently bought my places, and I’m gonna go buy, because I’m in this really high traffic, very social kind of area, very hip and trendy lot of bars and restaurants that stay open late. And I thought, I’m gonna come by before I buy this place, and see what it’s like Wednesday at 10pm. You know, is it? Is it crazy? Or is it totally quiet? And I wouldn’t really have known unless I did that. And so but you know, and I was my own agent. So I didn’t have somebody to ask, but but boy, that would have been great information for an agent representing me to be able to tell me, let’s I would love to talk about because of course, you you guys are facing the same inventory shortages, maybe even more so than then some other parts of the country because of how popular Charleston is. But I’m curious on how, you know, rising interest rates also are becoming a challenge. What are you doing? What are you saying to your agents to keep them motivated to sort of keep their business moving forward? Even though despite these real obvious challenges?

Drew Grossklaus 22:02
Sure. Well, you know, one of the things for me is with the agents is being optimistic. And so I just find negativity never gets you anywhere. So you know, one of the things in these times, because we hear a lot of the woe is me as real estate agents, and no inventory and whatever it may be. But But now, it’s such an amazing time to show your client, why you are so good at what you do. And so yes, with inventory, it is a little bit more of maybe knocking on doors and really, you know, under rocks, and really trying to find properties for somebody and really explaining to them how to make the best offer and how I can help you structure that to make the best decisions to try to get home. Now is such an amazing time again, for agents to really show because it’s, it’s showing them the value of an agent, it’s not just we go look at 10 homes, we narrow it down to five homes, we do second showings on three homes and, and we write a contract and we get through it, it’s really okay, I gotta dig in and work, we got to talk about maybe making some concessions on what we want. How, you know, how are we talking with the mortgage? And we structured it for us? Things like, you know, and sometimes difficult conversations like, Okay, we might need to remove appraisal, do you have cash on hand to do that? Okay, are we going to try to do an inspection report before we write a contract, which is typical here. But you know, it’s those type of things now, where if I’m an agent, I go, okay, now’s the time where I really get a shine and be amazing to my clients. And the other thing and jumping back a little bit to to, again, that knowledge that you have, and now these type of things. Those are then when the person calls you back in three years and says, Hey, we’re ready to change. And you were the one who knew the ins and outs, and you were the one who worked hard during the tough market, that now you know, we’re ready to upgrade or we’re ready to downsize. Our kids are ready to buy a home they’re calling you and that a big part of our firm is referral and repeat business. And it’s those things. Those are the reasons that people come back to us.

D.J. Paris 24:10
I agree. I think that’s very well said, I’m curious with your agents, because of course inventory is in short supply, as you mentioned, you got to, you know, be maybe sometimes more creative now to find some of these properties. Are you finding that any that agents are, for example, people that aren’t reaching out to their agent to say, I think it’s a good time to sell, I’m ready to sell. Maybe there’s, you know, there’s obviously people that need to sort of be prompted right and sort of need to be told a it might be a good time to sell and of course it might not be as well. But are your agents are you finding success with getting listings with people with homeowners that aren’t necessarily chomping at the bit to list a property?

Drew Grossklaus 24:57
Sure. It’s overdue. humming the issues that they have, right and how you do that. So, you know, a lot of people say, oh, you know, it’s great time to sell and I get it. But where will I go? Right? Okay, well, you know, let’s talk about that. And you know, there is some conversation to say, okay, but you always wanted this. And don’t get me wrong, we’re not going to be a sell high buy low situation. But it may be a great time for you if you really want it to be an X, Y, Z, and that we’re going to get the most for your home, and maybe I can find you this property we’ve always been looking for. So let’s try to create solutions or right, it’s the people who say, Well, I don’t have anywhere to go, Okay, well, right now we can get clients to really give us six months for you to stay in your home. So during that six months, we put on the push, and if we get to month four or five, we say okay, let’s go rent somewhere, right? Yeah. But you’re always in a better position to have that home sold, rather than trying to do the whole contingency, right? Because a lot of people don’t, that’s a scary word right now, and they don’t want to share it. It’s coming up with those solutions to people the obstacles to sell. And so that’s really again, where, you know, an agent can shine to say, Okay, there’s always a solution, right? The solution may not be great. And they might say, okay, that’s that, that makes me too nervous. But there are a lot of different ways we can structure things to say, Okay, let’s, let’s figure this out, we really can have some ways where we can design some things to get this done for you, during this time in this crazy market.

D.J. Paris 26:30
I’m so glad that you brought up the rent, you know, maybe sell high and rent if if you can’t find something to purchase, because it at first glance, I think that’s something that owners might have a visceral sort of negative reaction to, oh, I don’t want I don’t want to rent I’m, I’m an owner, I have this beautiful home and I don’t, I don’t want to go into a condo or you know, whatever else I might be able to rent. But it is kind of a, I think agents that bring that option to the table. I don’t think most agents tell homeowners that who aren’t necessarily looking to sell, I don’t know how often that’s brought up. And I think it’s a fantastic option to bring to somebody, whether they want to do it or not. I think just bringing that option saying, hey, there’s some luxury apartment buildings down here that would be you know, similar to your current lifestyle and in your, in your, you know, whatever type of home you have, or, you know, luxury or non luxury apartments, but there are options, like you said, Where let’s if we, if we run the numbers, I mean, my boss just did this, he had a home. Well, I won’t give specifics, but he had a home somewhere in the country who which appreciated an insane amount, like an insane amount where he, he’s like, I probably need to sell he had nowhere to buy. And, and he finally found something sort of last minute, but he was like, I guess I’m just gonna have to rent for a few years. But it was it was such a profit to him to do that, that and he has three kids and a wife. So, you know, but but they explored that. And I think that agents shouldn’t be afraid to have those conversations, because that that may be the best solution right now for someone.

Drew Grossklaus 28:11
Right? Right. And well, and it puts someone in a power position, right? It’s a low stress power position, especially again, in a competitive market of competitive offers, you know, not having again to have to sell that house or worry. Again, a lot of people in more normal markets fear that that to mortgage situation. But even if this, you know, okay, well, what if, you know, I get one under contract and the world changes quickly. And I have two mortgages. All right, well, if we sell, right, and we go to that rental option, you don’t have that concern anymore. It’s low stress, you’re in the power position. That’s a very big thing once people start to hear that explanation. Are there some inconveniences? Of course you know, if you have kids dogs, but you’ll find we always find it and we have a tough rental market too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, people are paying high prices. See that peace of mind and when we’re talking the amount of appreciation that extra little bit of rent per month really in the grand scheme of looking at numbers is not anywhere near but to be in that power position of being like at the snap of fingers say okay, yep, now we can move on this house that we do want you know, it’s it’s just a great position for them to be in a lot of people don’t think that way. They do think well, we got to stay in the home. We got to have the next home. Right. ready right away. We got to do a dual closing when we’re closing the same day. No, we you’ve got some options.

D.J. Paris 29:34
Yeah, I think that’s a really, really smart and this really brings me into this question that I would love. I very rarely get to speak to. While in Illinois, I always call everyone a broker because that’s the only designation we have here. So So I apologize for the people who are listening who might be confused. I’m just gonna say realtor just to make it easy, but I very rarely get to talk to broker owners or people in management like yourself, because I we traditionally We just talked to, you know, really just producers who are not in management. And I know you do both. I am curious to hear because again, from a, you know, not just an agent’s perspective, but somebody in management, what you think the role of a firm is to the agent? Because I know that, you know, our listeners are are always thinking, Am I at the right firm? Should I consider another option? Am I getting what I need and deserve? Or am I asking too much for my brokerage? And of course, we know that brokerages oftentimes can promise things that maybe maybe are exaggerated or whatever. But I’m curious to hear your thoughts, because you guys have this wonderful boutique firm, you had a very successful office. And I’m curious on what you think the role of the office is to churches? Sure,

Drew Grossklaus 30:51
yeah. And we have a probably a different thoughts in a lot of places. So you know, the big thing to start with is actually me, I am not, I do not sell real estate whatsoever. I am strictly Sales Director broker in charge. And to me, that’s very important. We have a lot of firms in our market where, honestly, the broker in charge is trying to get as many sales as the agents and to me, you know, that creates kind of a conflict. And I’m really available 24/7 to our agents, right? Because I’m not trying to work a deal. I’m not, hey, I’m in a closing right now. So I can’t get to your question. Because I’m having a problem with my deal. I’m helping with everybody’s deal. So and then I can also give perspective on pricing. And, you know, if they have trouble, or if I need to meet with clients to help them understand how our firm will help our agent, that’s the other big thing that I would say that I think an agent should really look forward to firm is somebody who can give you answers. You know, we tell our agents all the time. Never be somebody who goes and gives an answer that you hope is right. Always say, let me let me find out. That’s a great question. Let me find out. I’ve got someone I can call right away me. We have an attorney on retainer that I can call or we have state attorneys, like like other people. But I found as a homeowner, too, right? I had an issue recently, right? Where I had a pipe break, right? And if you’re a homeowner, and you go, Okay, wait, I’m in real estate, but I don’t know who to call right now. I need somebody to help me. And I need somebody to help me quick. And I need somebody who can give me an answer. And that’s the one of the worst feelings is when you don’t know what to do, who to call. And so for our agents, we give, hey, client, I know who to call, if you have a problem. They call me I know who to call, I have a problem and kind of on down the line. We also are a full service brokerage. And again, other business models are big smiles in great, but what we do, we have a marketing director, marketing coordinator. All we want our agents doing is working with their clients and listing and selling, we don’t want them writing anything for the MLS, we don’t want them taking any pictures for the love of goodness. You know, and so we just want them to focus on you know, that client, and we also are brokers, we don’t have a closing coordinator, because we’re like, we need you as an agent needs to be with that person all the way through the process. And actually, most of their clients become their friends. And you know, they’re having dinners with them after closing. And again, this is the referral repeat business. So our model is really give the answers have someone you can call at any time who can answer questions and be there. And again, I’m also then try to do things that show him on the local, the state and even the national level of being informed on how this business is going to operate. In unique times, like we have no,

D.J. Paris 33:47
I think that was so well said. And I’m going to unpack just a couple of things in in what you just said, because I want to make sure our audience understands. One of the things Drew said that is incredibly powerful. And also, and I’m curious to I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I’m gonna I’m gonna call it rare here in Chicago. I’m assuming it’s rare in Charleston as well, though you’ll correct me if I’m wrong, which is Drew said, Hey, I don’t go out and sell real estate and you have in the past but your role now is I am 100% dedicated to assisting my agents, which means I’m not out there working with clients, I don’t go to closings. You know, I you know, maybe if it was you buying or selling your own property, but but that’s probably about it. And and the idea is no, I need to be here for my agents that is often the term that I hear sometimes use, they call that sometimes a non competing managing broker or a non competing management team. These is incredibly rare. And I only know and I’m pretty well connected here in Chicago with lots of the different offices and I only know two offices. Aside from ours. We have the same philosophy that I don’t go out and practice as well. That is a huge thing. And it doesn’t get talked about enough because most firms don’t do it that way. But the fact that you are Non practicing or non competing is a enormous benefit to your age.

Drew Grossklaus 35:05
It is rare. And I will say this, we’ve had a couple other firms in Charleston, who have who followed our model. Right. And which, which is great, because that shows success when people imitate. The other funny thing that I will say about me that I think is important maybe to the listeners a little bit is I actually have never sold real estate now. I’ve never okay, I apologize. What and that’s, and that, I think the interesting part, and trust me, I’ve been so involved and so entrenched with agents, in getting deals done that I have worked with clients I have dealt with and, and but the other thing too, that is, in some ways, I bring a perspective also to the clients, right that there is someone when they have a problem that I am there, and I’m on conference calls, Zoom calls, right at their home, that they feel an assurance of that firm, they just don’t have a real estate agent, they have a firm that is working with them. And so that’s the other thing, not just about non competing and but but that there is somebody there with them who are helping them that are giving them advisement and again, using my education level experience level, right, that they go, okay. You know, even if our agent is saying the exact same thing as he is, you know, it gives them an insurance that, okay, they know what they’re doing. And I give the same answer. If they asked me a question, I don’t know, I said, I don’t know that, let me find out. Because always, you know, and we always do want to go to attorneys if we get in certain situations. But I can tell them, you know, even give them a pretty good idea through through my years of experience that this is probably what the attorney is going to say, we’re going to talk to him but but this gives you an idea so you can be prepared. So again, it’s that it’s that next level that you can add to somebody. And when you go on a listing presentation, whether you have somebody you can take with you to do that, or you just let them know there is this person. And we’ll have a lot of times where an agent will call me and say hey, I just had a listing presentation, I talked about you, the person like to talk to you give you a call, great haven’t given me a call. And then when we talk, I’ll be honest, pretty much 10 times out of 10, that person years uses our firm after they talk to me because I have that confidence level.

D.J. Paris 37:17
I’m almost curious if you see yourself more relating more to since you have have not been in sales, and I apologize for MS speech earlier. I wonder, because I’m the same way I’ve never practiced. I’ve been here for 12 years, I recruit agents, I consider myself a marketing guy. That’s my background. I know you’ve done marketing as well, and your background prior, which we didn’t we didn’t get into. But I know you’re a marketing guy, and then also an accounting guy. And so I’m curious, do you I always because I don’t practice real estate directly. Even though we have hundreds of agents here at our firm, I connect, or I see myself as relating more to the to the customer. So I think that and I’m not in the same role that you have where I have to provide that level of support. We have people, other people here on staff to do that. But But I always think I’m always more connected to the consumer experience. And I think that you feel I don’t want to put words in your mouth. But I’m curious if you feel connected to that consumer experience, because you consider yourself a bit of an outsider, even though of course you’re not really.

Drew Grossklaus 38:18
Yeah, absolutely. Look, I think, you know, from a real estate agent in this day and age, right, where they’re psychologists to their clients. I’m sort of a psychologist to all of my real estate agents, and then to sometimes to their clients. But one of the things I find and I try to make sure agents remember is what it’s like to buy and sell a home when you’re the person doing it. Right. So yes, I’ve got a showing and remember what it’s like when you had the two year old and the four year old and the two dogs and had to get them out. Remember that when you’re talking to a client remember the idea of okay, clutter, and how do I want to hear about okay, we might need to take down some of those family photos that line the stairwell. Right. And you can’t even see that there’s a wall behind an amount of pictures, right? So it’s kind of that, hey, you’re a real estate agent, you’re trying to get a contract, you’re trying to negotiate a deal, but but remember the humanity of it too, and the scariness of it too. And again, going back to those questions that you you, you don’t think of that you’re trying to help them remember, and be relatable to, hey, this process isn’t easy. But if that’s why you have me here to help you. Again, a little bit of psychology that you’re doing with your client and again, as me as a as a as a manager as a non selling broker, then don’t get me wrong. I have two agents who come in and sit down in my chair and literally we’re going to do a 30 minute talk just for them to vent about about a client and that’s you know, and that’s kind of so so maybe in the realm also, hey, it’s really hard to be a real estate agent to write I have to kind of help them through that. And again, that’s where some positivity comes in to get around that negativity and be like, we’re gonna get through this. And there’s options and there’s solutions, and we’ll figure them out. But do I gotta be, I don’t have a couch, I have a nice leather chair. But I probably could have that couch as well to kind of get get through some of those times. But but it really is that that psychology and remembering what it’s like to be, you know, that customer client and buying or selling,

D.J. Paris 40:28
I have to pause for a quick, quick break for one of our sponsors. And but I’m going to ask a question that I’d like you to think about. And we’ll we’ll break well, once we finished my little live spot here, we’ll we’ll answer, which is about leads. I know, as you know, you get that question, I’m sure when people are inquiring by agents, maybe considering joining your firm. And I know I get that question a lot, especially from agents who are struggling or newer, and of course, leads being one of the scariest parts of the business not having enough, where do I get them? So I’m curious to get your thoughts on what is the role if any of the firm with respect to helping an agent either pass leads to them, or help them generate leads, or a combination of both. So before we do that quick message from our, our, our amazing sponsor, which this is one of our favorite companies in the real estate space, which is called follow up boss. Now I’ve interviewed hundreds of top Realtors from across the country for this show. And this is absolutely true. The CRM that is used by more than any of our guests. Of course, it’s follow up boss and let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your real estate business to the next level. Follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Now don’t take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one real estate team in the United States use his follow up Boss, he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 existing systems so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. And the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help you need. Does Drew was mentioning he has seven days a week support for his agents they have seven days a week support for their agents as are their customers who are agents follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial. No, this is twice as long as they give everyone else so but you have to follow this special link to get the 30 day free trial. And by the way, no credit card required, they’re so confident you’re going to continue to use their service, you can totally do this risk free, but only if you follow this special link, which is follow up boss.com forward slash real, again, follow up boss.com forward slash real follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episodes. So Drew, wanted to talk about how do you answer the Hey, I’m thinking about joining your company? What kind of leads do you have? Because I know you must get those calls just like we do.

Drew Grossklaus 43:05
Of course, of course. And leads are very important and follow up is very important as well. So you know, I would say and where we as a company know more and more of our money goes to the technology, right? It is it is the getting lead generation. Now, and especially given our market, we are a destination market. So a lot of people are searching for us, there’s no doubt about it, whether they intend to move here or not. Trust me when when it’s January, the lead numbers from New York and the Northeast are through the roof of people who are ready to get out from the snow and Chicago. It gets windy there I know. So but but what I would say to the to the lead, you know, the pie is only so big. And the competition for that pie gets more and more. So any in my opinion, these firms that promise you a huge amount of leads, that’s pretty difficult, because we’re all trying to get them in spending money to do it. We then say though, the leads we do get, you know, you’ve got to have the plan, right. So we have a whole plan that we give you of how to foster those leads, how to communicate with them. One of the things that we do that’s kind of unique and I think more and more people are aware that when they go to a website right there, we’re a little big brother ish, and that we can see what you looked at. When you you know when when you sign up. And so what we want to do, yes, we have the Hey, with the email that goes out to thank you for registering for that. But our agent gets that notification right away. We definitely are on the hey, you need to within an hour you really should be contacting them because those statistics are true, right? The sooner somebody gets to someone, the more likelihood they are to get them. But also you know, what is that first communication and what we kind of tell them Miz for example, you know, we can see where that lead came from, right? There’s IP addresses. And so if it is a lead in January from New York, your response might be the climate in Charleston, is, you know, we’re at 68 degrees today on January 3, right. And you might see also that they’re looking at a lot of four and five bedroom homes, you know, our schools important to you, ask them questions that make them want to communicate with you. And then with those leads, if you don’t hear anything, have that plan, right? And schedule it so that you’re not constantly looking through your leads list going, Okay, who do I need to communicate now, every time make a schedule, so Okay, two weeks, I’m gonna reach out to this person again. And again, with our system. And with lots of systems, right, you can go on the back end and see if they’re coming back what they’re looking at that type of thing. The biggest thing I would say, though, is have a plan so that you can limit your amount of time during the week, because really, our plan is that if you have two hours, one day a week, you can foster your leads and do a lot of communication that looks like you’re constantly looking at it. But if you don’t do that system, well, you’re going to be you know, we all get busy than with a listing or a buyer. And then it’s two weeks later, if you haven’t done it, you go God, I don’t know, I don’t know who to communicate with what to say, who to look at. So the planning portion of leads is really where it needs to be to be successful.

D.J. Paris 46:29
I agree. And you just said something that was very important, which was two hours once a week can really plan out your follow up protocol, whether it’s, you know, you’re posting on social, whether you’re writing personal notes, whether you’re phone calls, text messages, maybe you’re checking LinkedIn to see if any of your you know sphere of influence had anything major happen this week with professionally. And and but there are there are it what’s interesting is I think agents don’t realize that they can do it in a couple hours a week, they think, oh my gosh, I have so many other hats I have to wear. And now I’ve you know, I’m I don’t have any inventory. I’m trying to find properties and rates are going up and everyone’s freaking out. I don’t have time to follow up with people. I don’t even know what to say to people. Because you know, I don’t have a whole lot of great news right now. And I think that’s where someone like you or is so important way more important than, hey, I’ve got leads for you. Not that there’s anything wrong with getting some great leads from your, your managing broker, if that’s if that’s a possibility. But I think most agents know that that’s not really, for most firms where the value comes in from the firm itself that comes from having somebody like Drew who’s like, I will help you once you get a lead. You know, make sure we have solutions for your clients. And I’ll be there to guide you and them through the process. And let’s just be honest, too. I mean, not not that we’re not honest. But let’s just say it like it is most firms don’t have leads. So be very careful. Right? Anyone listening? Right? Yeah, Andrew, I don’t mean to make you agree with everything I said. But I’m curious if you know, people dangle the lead carrot, but some firms will dangle that,

Drew Grossklaus 48:17
of course, of course. And we don’t, you know, our firm is very much we’re trying to get you leads to supplement, right for our success. Again, we’re at Christie’s affiliate, you know, part of the reason you join us is for that name as well. But again, we want to give you tools and knowledge to help you get things the leads are just something that hopefully come in and we have had people who are very successful with leads, we have plenty of agents who don’t take leads, right? They’re like they we’ve got our own way we do business, that’s fine. The people that do have leads, though, we try to really give them okay, here’s communication plans, here’s timing plans, that you don’t get snowed under by leads, and you keep going well, every lead I get. Nobody calls me back. Nobody communicates with me. Okay, well, how are you communicating with them? What are you saying? What can you give them? Right? What kind of questions are you asking them that makes them want to interact? Not just the How soon are you moving? How much can you afford? Right? Those type of things are things that look like they were generated by a bot, right? And so it’s just like this form letter back to them to go, okay, you know, show you’re a real person. And again, that jumps back to what we talked about before the knowledge and those things they can’t find on the internet that information, ask them if they’d like to know more about that type of question. And that’s where you get those leads interacting with you. And again, you can show them, this is somebody that I want to work with.

D.J. Paris 49:42
I was just thinking while you while you were saying earlier about really immersing yourself in the local knowledge, right, making sure whatever area is your you know, area of serviceability that you know, the history and you know, a lot of facts and sort of day to day A few things that that, you know, somebody who’s might be moving into that area should know, I just had this thought and I’m curious if any of your agents have have started to do this. And I know we’re, this is kind of out of the blue. But I was wondering, you know, as you start to learn, like if I was to move to Charleston, and as I wanted to be a successful agent, they’re not knowing anything about Charleston and starting from scratch without any sphere of influence. I know one of the things that I would want to know, if I were moving there, just as a, somebody who is moving to the areas, I’d want to know more about the history. So I was thinking, Boy, it’s a great opportunity for agents to, you know, talk about this stuff on their social platforms, to, you know, if they learn a really interesting fact about Charleston, for example, in your, in your case for your agents, or a certain neighborhood, or really, they can, now they can, you know, we all have those the really professional recording equipment in our pocket, we can turn around and do a Facebook Live and say, I just learned the most interesting fact about X, Y, and Z, and be able to really share that knowledge with their social followers.

Drew Grossklaus 51:02
Yes, I mean, it’s become huge now to be able to show those pieces of information to people that make them want to use you to help them with real estate, again, they can get so much information. And that’s, that’s really the thing that people have a hard time with is okay, well, but I don’t know what to tell him. I don’t know what to show him. Well, that’s where, you know, one we do live in a great area where there’s a lot of things to do, but this is where planning comes into place. Right. And even if you we like to tell our agents, right, you put things in the can, right? And so Hey, one day, it’s a beautiful day, you might shoot three things, and you’re not going to use those three until the next month. Right. But you know, you’re always thinking about that, that. And again, the amazing thing that people really love about social media that we try to say, and don’t get me wrong, high production is great. And we do luxury, but more and more people really want authentic, right, and they don’t need you to look dressed to the nines, or, you know, they like that you’re you are out for a walk, and you saw a beautiful flower box on a home. And you say this is an amazing, you know, piece of art. That is a flower box, right. And again, thankfully, we live in a beautiful place. There’s lots of things here, but also the being authentic, because we have a lot of agents who say, Well, I’m not an actor, or an actress, you know, I don’t do well on camera. And it doesn’t have to be some high produced, we and we do do some high production things we do, you know, have a company that will do the fly throughs, and the intro videos and all that stuff. And we do that a lot of times with some of our higher listings, but but the more of showing that you’re, again, down to earth person, that you see beauty in some of these things, and alley, a brick sidewalk, you know, those type of things. And you can take it in and show someone some things and again, any information that they may not know and give them a little bit of information. But this can be your kind of communication calendar to say, okay, hey, I’m going to walk on Saturday with downtown for an hour. And you might get eight things that you can use over the course of three months. So

D.J. Paris 53:16
yeah, yeah, you know, Drew, you just said something that’s so valuable to our audience is walking, walking in your local community. I mean, it even if it’s okay, so we don’t all live in beautiful Charleston, of course. But even if it’s your local community, and you go well, there isn’t a whole lot of beauty right now in my community. Okay, well, how about featuring local businesses? How about saying, oh my god, this is the best restaurant in this neighborhood, or this is my favorite, and let’s go talk to the owner, or let’s just show you what the inside of this, you know, whatever, you know, might might be interesting to the audience. And I think it’s a real cool way to show how dedicated and passionate somebody is it doesn’t mean you have to act passionate, but being able to say Look at this cool thing. In my in my area is very exciting to people and really demonstrates that you’re you’re all in as an agent.

Drew Grossklaus 54:13
Right? Right. Well, and and to that point, right, you know, you’re selling someone a house, but if you can show them where they live, right, you have your house, but you live well around the shops around you Around the restaurants around you around, it might be a lake or a water feature, you know, to be able to show them some of those things in a neighborhood or an area or downtown a place they can easily walk or bike. Again, those are the things that I know I’ve gotten back to this point. But again, people think they get so much information now. But when you show them where you really didn’t have all the information, they go, you know, this person gets it right. I have to I don’t always just live in the home. Oh, I don’t want to live, I want to live. You know what’s around me too. And they show me what that is.

D.J. Paris 55:06
It’s funny, I was thinking about this, as you were talking, as I didn’t realize that. And again, I’m not a practicing agent, like yourself. And so I was, I always think about this from the consumer perspective, when I, when I got my most recent place, there is a target a mini like a smaller target, not a full size target, but a mini target, we’ll call it right downstairs, it’s me know, 20 steps away from where I live. Now, that’s a real obvious thing to people who shop at Target, I think women tend to be a bit more connected to target than men, just generally speaking, of course, you know, just sort of speaking with stereotypes. But as a man, I, somebody who didn’t shop at Target before, I didn’t realize the value of having a mini target, which has a full, really nice, fresh produce section as well. I didn’t realize the value of having that right downstairs. And then once I moved in, I was like, Oh, that’s really important. Because if I need anything, I have that right downstairs. And it sounds silly, or not silly, but sort of obvious, but I didn’t think about it until after I’d already bought the place. And I that would have been really important to have an agent come to me and say, Hey, let’s just imagine it’s Saturday night, you’re making dinner for someone and you you missed an ingredient, or you need to run out and get a bottle of wine or whatever. Right downstairs is a target with a fresh food place. Like that’s, that’s valuable. That’s important. And it’s more of an intangible, a little bit. But boy, I’ve lived there for a year now. And I go there like three, four times a week, just grabbing things that I missed. I don’t normally shop there. So I’m just making that point that like, that was really important to me. i And and the person who was showing me that property. I mean, they mentioned it, oh, there’s target here, and certainly didn’t walk me through a real sort of scenario. And I think agents can do that. They get the ability to say let’s think about what it’s like to have this nearby and why it’s important, not just that it’s convenient and grab your stuff there. But let’s think about why that’s actually really helpful.

Drew Grossklaus 57:09
Well, think about doing that in a listing presentation. Right? So your listing presentation, and everybody wants to know how much you think it’s worth. But say you ask that seller, the question of why do you love it here? What differences does it make? Because I want to convey that to other agents and buyers that come here? Think about in a listing presentation, what that may mean to a seller and going yeah, you’re right. It’s not just my house, here’s why this was great. And I love walking here or riding my bike here doing this. And you can say, You know what, I’m going to do a video showing me riding from the house to hear and show how great it is. You know, that’s the type of thing where somebody in a listing presentation sets you apart from other people and those other agents doing that listing presentation.

D.J. Paris 57:54
Drew, I could talk to you all day about this, you and I are, are you and I are kind of marketing guys at heart. And when we think about it from the clients perspective, and I think for everyone who’s been listening, Boy, you’ve just demonstrated some tremendous value and given our audience a lot to think about, especially during those listing presentations. I think that is such a great point to end on. Ask the seller when you were there. What what is really cool about living here, yes, the interior we can we’re going to market the heck out of that. But I want to know what’s the what are things that people don’t know about living here that are really cool, because I want to make sure that anyone who comes in knows about I think just in I use it way more elegantly than I did. But whatever however you say that that not only is going to separate you but it’s really some of sometimes those are the little things that make the difference. Absolutely. Well, Drew i So boy, I could talk to you for hours. i But of course Drew’s busy running a massive, massive brokerage, a boutique brokerage, but with massive, massive sales, and drew is a busy guy. But I want to also tell anyone who is in the Charleston area who maybe you’re not getting everything that you feel you deserve from your current broker. And if you’re looking to see what other options exist, you know, you should consider speaking with Drew now of course, they’re not everyone is a fit for his company, but he would love the opportunity to chat with you to see if there would be some synergy there. So Drew Drew is by the way with William means real estate, also Christie’s affiliate Christie’s International, very white glove, luxury brand, Luxury Firm, boutique office. Drew’s a non competing managing broker, he’s literally there to help you succeed, and that is his only job. And that is a great position and 99% of firms are maybe I’m sort of making this number up, but it’s probably about 95 to 99% of managing brokers do not operate the same way. And I know this drew knows this. So this is a really cool thing. So if you’re feeling like you’re not getting the attention you deserve at your current firm Do you want to explore another option? DREW? What’s the best way an agent should reach out to you?

Drew Grossklaus 1:00:05
Sure. It’s just drew Dr. Ew at William means.com. And I’m happy to talk with people and I, I will add in this, this is for anyone, not just, you know, make sure you interview a firm. They’re not just interviewing you, you are interviewing them. And that’s what I always say, when people come in to talk to me is this is a partnership, you’re an independent contractor, and we don’t have success unless you have success and vice versa. So you know, remember that, that, you know, I feel like agents sometimes when they come in, they feel like their interview and in no like your interview the firm have questions, we find out how they’re really going to help you so and that’s what we like to do. I love to talk to anyone also, even if they have questions for me, that’s not related about joining William means please feel free to reach out to me, again, Drew at William means.com. And I’d love to chat with anyone.

D.J. Paris 1:00:58
And if there’s anyone that’s either moving to the South Carolina area, or sorry, well, I’m sure Drew can, agents can assist many different areas around Charleston. But if you have clients that are moving to that area, or if there is someone listening, who is themselves moving out there and wants to work with a top agent in the area, please consider reaching out to Drew he’s got an amazing team of Realtors, that William means. They are just some of the very top producing agents in that area. And they’re all helmed underneath drew who is going to help them as well as you if you are an agent. So Drew, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, everyone visit Drew’s website as well, which is Charleston realestate.com. Again, Drew would love to chat with you, whether you’re an agent looking for another office, or maybe somebody who’s looking to move or if you’re an agent and want to refer business to you know, my parents had a second place in South Carolina for many, many, many years. And so, you know, referrals are a thing, let’s, let’s build our referral network everyone and Charleston is a place where you should have some brokers that you can refer to because guess what, a lot of your peak clients might end up moving there at some point. So Charleston is a great, great destination. As Drew said, it’s a destination. Let’s build that referral network reach out to Drew and his team reach him at drew his emails drew at William means.com, or visit Charleston real estate.com. Drew, thank you so much for being on our show this You are wonderful guest and really provided some great insight for our audience. So thank you. You’re welcome. On behalf of our audience, we thank you. On behalf of Drew and myself. We also thank our audience for continuing to make it to the end of the show and continue to support us best thing you can do, or the only thing we ask our agents to do aside from supporting our amazing sponsors, is also tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this exact episode withdrew and send them a link. You can send them right over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, you can stream right from a browser. They don’t need to be a podcast person. They can just pull up a browser click play right at keeping it real pod.com DREW thanks so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you

Aaron Masliansky realtor with Dream Town Realty and podcast host discusses how he got into real estate and why. Aaron describes why he decided to start a podcast and how he built his two podcasts. Next, Aaron explains what global real estate is and how he got involved. Aaron also discusses a couple of unusual and funny experiences he’s had as a realtor and also explains how he values meeting buyers before showings and how this helps him build relationships.

Please check out Aaron’s two podcasts The Real Estate Diplomat and Inside the Skev®.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Aaron Masliansky can be reached at 847-440-4421 and [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s show, we talk about why creating your own podcast will help you dominate your local market. Stay tuned to this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer and podcast host Aaron Messalonskee. Before we get to Aaron, just a couple of quick reminders. Please tell a friend about this show. This is how we grow and reach more audience members and we’d love it if you told every realtor you knew about this, this podcast and this episode, send them a link over to our website keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done can be streamed right from that website. You don’t even need a podcast app. And also please leave us a review that really helps us understand what we do well on the show and how we can improve. So wherever you’re listening to this show, whether it’s on Apple, iTunes or Apple podcasts now or Google Play Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon wherever. Let us know what you think of the show. It really helps us But enough about that let’s get on to the main event my interview with Aaron Masse Lansky. Today on the show we have top producer and podcast host Aaron Messalonskee with Dream town Realty in your in Chicago. Let me tell you more about Aaron now for the last 11 years, Aaron has immersed himself in the world of residential real estate with a specific emphasis on his community, which is Skokie and Evanston. And for those of you that aren’t from Chicago, those are the really the two of the closest suburbs to the city. So they’re you know, a lot of times people just consider them extensions of the city. But he doesn’t just work there. Of course, he works in all the surrounding Chicago areas. But after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in urban planning Messalonskee cultivated his interest in property development, working for a developer for many years. And now he works as a realtor with Dream town Realty. He’s also established global real estate networks, and he is proud to be the current chairman of the global real estate Council for the Chicago Association of Realtors. Now to connect with his global and local communities, Aaron has established two podcasts one’s titled The Real Estate diplomat and the second one’s called inside the scab, which was featured in the Chicago Tribune and has over 100 recorded episodes. Now if he’s not keeping up with the market or global trends, Erin can be found volunteering with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and Rotary International. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and college sweetheart, Stacy and their two children Joey and Sophia. Please everyone check out Aaron’s website, which is Aaron messalonskee.com. And I will instead of spelling that out, I will actually go to the show notes. I will have a link right there. You can go right to his his learn about what he does in his two podcasts. But Aaron, welcome to the show.

Aaron Masliansky 4:26
It’s great to be here. I appreciate it.

D.J. Paris 4:30
Well, we I was just telling Aaron that I actually had seen him in a dinner that we had at the National Association of Realtors Conference this last fall. But it was a big room with lots of people and it was my first time in in that particular room for the Chicago Association of Realtors. But Aaron is incredibly well respected here in the Chicagoland area, not just for his acumen as an agent, but also a lot of the volunteer efforts. You do and I before we sort of get started with everything else we want to talk about Aaron idle love to just hear about how you got into real estate and also why.

Aaron Masliansky 5:03
Sure. Well, it and by the way, I wish we would have met at that dinner because I am like, enamored by you and your podcasts. And it would be cool to talk. So I’m glad we have this opportunity now. But I got into real estate. You know, basically, when I was a kid, I was interested in the game Sim City. And I would play and build these cities and so much fun. And when I went to college, I thought, well, I love aviation. Also, I was going to be a pilot. So I went down to University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, I was in their aviation school, but like, I had to pick another thing for my major because they didn’t have a major yet. And I thought, urban planning, like SimCity urban planning, so cool. So I started to do that. And I really just loved it. And another thing was to my grandfather and his brother, when they were working, were real estate developers. And so I kind of bounce a lot of ideas off, Tim learned about it. And as I went through college, I interned for the village of Skokie, and village and Morton Grove in the summers loved working in their planning departments. But I love the ideas of the what the people were doing, who were bringing the plans and developers. So I thought it’d be cool to get into real estate developments, or as thinking Global Affairs like two separate things as college went on. Anyway, I got a job with a real estate developer out of college by literally looking in the yellow pages. And I guess that shows my age a little bit. But I looked in the yellow pages, dressed up in a suit, walked around one day in Evanston and dropped off a resume the real estate developers office named Tom Brozek. And he called me back and I got a job. And that’s how I got started in this industry.

D.J. Paris 6:49
Wow. And then how did you make the move from working with a developer than to being an agent yourself?

Aaron Masliansky 6:54
So I worked for him from 2004 to 2009. And kinda like, learned everything about the business, he threw me at everything, it was the greatest learning experience in regards to real estate in regards to business that I could ask for. And, you know, the market turned and I had a look for something else to do. At that time. I went and did business developments. My brother owns first class Moving and Storage, I worked there for several years, but I really still wants to get back into real estate. So I thought, okay, how do I do this? I decided to get my license. And I started as a part time agent, and I worked both jobs for a while. And and I will tell you is it is much easier to do real estate full time. But I was just trying to do it, make some extra money stay in the game. And then eventually, I was able to transition to full time being a real estate broker. And that’s, it’s been a great, great move.

D.J. Paris 7:52
Isn’t it so interesting with part time agents? I understand the idea. You know, I talked to a lot of newly licensed agents. And you know, a lot of them are like, well, I can’t, I don’t feel like I can do this full time. Because you know, I don’t know what the future will hold. But at the same time, it is kind of funny. So the irony is that doing it part time, in some ways might even be harder, right? Like, even though, you know, in theory, it sort of logistically seems like that would make no sense to sort of transition slowly. But I’m curious how you found, you know, part time versus full time?

Aaron Masliansky 8:27
Well, you know, I had a baby at when I first started a one year old, and then we’re expecting our second. And my first year in the business, I lost money. My first client actually died during the transaction. Yeah. I mean, welcome to the business, right. It was crazy. I was helping him find a rental. And then you know, just, he passed away wasn’t well, anyway, you know, it could really put a dent on your psyche, and I needed to make money. So it was hard, because as I got, you know, established and got my name and marketed and did everything, like I was busier, I needed time to be able to go show properties to, to go through inspections, to network to do all the right types of things that you need to do to be successful. But at the same time, I had to make a living. So it was very, very hard to make that leap. Also working for family. I mean, you feel really guilty the leaf. So it took it took that you know, just where I got so busy, where I’m like, I gotta make this move at some point. And it was just it was a great feeling to be able to have that freedom to be able to, you know, kind of explore what you could do within the industry at that point.

D.J. Paris 9:46
Well, I’d love to talk about your podcast because you’re a two time podcast host and not just about you know, well first. I’m curious why you decided to start to start a podcast or now Yep, Do so.

Aaron Masliansky 10:00
Well, you know I, at first I was thinking, you really you search for original content to be able to put on social media. And I was putting things out sharing different links to things and and you don’t really get engagement and it’s not original. So I was thinking how do I do this and I went to a National Association of Realtors Conference in 2017 in Chicago, and Monica Neubauer, her host the National Association of realtor podcasts center for realtor development. She was giving a seminar on how to create a podcast. So I went to my listens, and I’m like, Okay, I guess this is how I do it. And then a couple a year later, I think it was, I was I meet with coach Sean perutz. She’s, she’s a great business coach, life coach. And she said to me, because she saw this video that was produced for my business, she said, Erin, you’ve got a great Acme for for media, she said, You got to figure out how to utilize this. So I started doing Facebook Lives with, like, ask me anything. Ama is for real estate. And then like, you know what, I really should do the podcast. So I was talking with Sean. And she’s like, well, what would it take for you to do it? And I said, Well, I guess I gotta get a couple microphones. And, you know, she’s like, Haha, and what else I’m like, Yeah, it’s really not that much to do. So then I just started, you know, figuring Okay, I’m gonna do it. And then I brainstormed with people at Dream town. This one person in particular Stacy smaller, she’s in the marketing departments. We were working on the concept and I wanted to do a show that would feature my community Skokie in Evanston. And I, originally, what I wanted to do was just really feature my previous clients and help as a benefit to them to promote their business or promote their organization to say thank you. And then I’m, they’re able to share it on their social media. And it’s just a it’s an easy ask for people and everyone feels good. It’s just a, it’s a nice way to network,

D.J. Paris 12:05
may I pause you for a second, just to make sure that our audience understands, because I think what you’re saying, is, is a huge, huge piece of advice and a really smart idea, which was, hey, I just I’m working with, maybe I just helped this person buy or sell a property or I’m in the process of helping them buy or sell a property. They work somewhere, you know, somebody here in the family works, maybe they have their own business, or maybe they work for a business. And I would like to create a community based podcast for residents of that community. And I want to highlight, you know, maybe their business or some story about them as a way to support the, you know, their the community, I guess, at large, so accurate,

Aaron Masliansky 12:45
okay, that is completely accurate. And, you know, for instance, like, here’s an example, one of the first people I had on the show was a friend of mine, his name’s Jacob Shapiro, Jacob bought a house with me, his whole family has been tremendous to me, they, they refer me there, they’re just wonderful people. And Jacob owns a business called barrel design builds where he does, he’s a general contractor, he does carpentry work, he does a lot of commercial work. And I’m like, Hey, come on in. And he sat right next to me here where I am in my house right now. And, you know, we had, we had a drink, we talked, we did the I was like the second or third episode. And it was a great way to promote him. And it was fun. And then everybody else who knows him got to hear it. So as I continued to do it, I people got to know the show. And I got to have a lot of the community leaders I got. And it gave people a reason to speak with me and is easy for me to ask them. And then people started coming to me. So I’ve gotten to interview like the mayors of the towns, the heads of different businesses, the new things that are coming on. I mean, it’s like I’m in the know of everything. And it’s so cool.

D.J. Paris 13:51
And, and what’s so great, too, I just want to make this point, because it’s an important one, especially if you’re featuring somebody who has a small business in the area that that your podcast is sort of featuring is that, you know, marketers are always calling those businesses saying, hey, spend money for advertising, you know, whether it’s print media, digital media, you know, there’s cost they, you know, they’re salespeople trying to say, Oh, you need to advertise. And basically what you’re offering is free advertising for for that business. But what you’re, you’re really providing value to the community too, because I’m sure you know, your friend who, you know, probably has a wonderful business, and it’s great promotion, but it’s it’s so there’s not probably I’m guessing when you when you have reached out to people does anything you said it’s an easy, yes. Has anyone ever really turned you down to be featured on your show? Yeah,

Aaron Masliansky 14:43
I’ve been turned down. You know, and I think sometimes people, I don’t know exactly what the reason is, or whatnot, but I don’t think it really necessarily has to do anything with me. It could just be something that’s going on with them in the community or they don’t you know, they Maybe salty or whatever it is,

D.J. Paris 15:02
but or just anxiety around being on a show? Well, 100%

Aaron Masliansky 15:05
I mean, you really get to know how people feel when they’re being recorded. If because the minute you’re done recording, the best conversation happens. And I get to learn everything about what’s happening, and I love that. But I almost feel like it should just keep rolling. But because people are just at ease at that point, but it’s, generally speaking, people are happy to come on, and it’s, it’s just been really fantastic.

D.J. Paris 15:33
And you’re obviously passionate about Evanston, Skokie, or stevinson. area. It’s where you live, it’s what you know, you grew up there as well. And it’s fun. I imagine it, you’re doing a lot of good, right? By promoting these businesses. They’re having, you know, getting some advertising. And then I’m curious, not that you’re doing it as a way to get more clients. But I’m curious if it’s resulted in business coming your way, buyers and sellers who hear your show, maybe they’re exposed to it through somebody you’ve interviewed, curious how often that turns into a client?

Aaron Masliansky 16:08
Well, I definitely have had some people who have reached out to me specifically because of the show, or I had them on and they read and they either worked with me, or they referred a family member or friend to me to work. So that’s happened several times. And it’s not like, you know, all of the business by any means. It’s a you know, some people, but it happens. And then there’s just the exposure itself where people people see your name, and it may not be because of the podcast originally that they’re calling you. But they Oh, yeah, I know, you know, Skokie Evanston. So well. I even have a billboard up right now, that says your realtor from stevinson. And it’s been said, yeah, it’s, oh, my God, it’s crazy to see myself like that. But it’s, you know, I really leaned in, let’s just say,

D.J. Paris 17:00
Yeah, but it’s something that you’re really passionate about. It’s not a calculated, sort of this is going to get me a lot of business. I imagine. I mean, I imagine it’s a lot of fun for you.

Aaron Masliansky 17:11
It’s a ton of fun. And you know, it has, it has changed the perception that people have of who I am, because I have, I have gotten to interview people that I never would have had the opportunity to speak to in a million years. I’ll give you some examples. So I interviewed Alison pure Sullivan, she’s one of the village board members for the village of Skokie. So it’s like the city hall. And she is the Midwest Region head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which basically helps combat anti semitism and racism. And she was bringing in these people who are former Neo Nazis to come and now they’re peace activists, they they’ve turned, and she is bringing them into Chicago to to speak and fundraisers and whatnot. And she said, Hey, I needed a location for for this event with Tim Garrett, who’s one of these people. And I said, Well, why don’t we do it at? You know, I was over at the industrious, co working space in Evanston. I said, Why don’t we do it here, my wife had an office there. And we were able to and we put on this event, and then I interviewed him before everybody. So here I am having this live conversation in front of people to this former neo Nazi and talking to him about this experience. And never in a million years as a Jewish person, when I think I’m speaking to this person who basically started the kk k in Germany. And you know, it was just unbelievable. And then other things where I’ve gotten to speak for organizations, the JCC, in Chicago, the Jewish Community Center, they’ve had me do probably upwards of 20 or so interviews for their film festival. I’ve spoken with. I mean, this one man I spoke to once his name’s Henry panion. He’s a Grammy Award winning composer. He produced this documentary about the about basically, there’s these things called the violence of hope they cease violence that were from Holocaust victims that were then restored and sent around the world and he is in. In an Alabama, I forget exactly a town right now. Anyway, he put on this whole concert with these violins. And and he’s been involved with, like, civil rights movement. He’s composed, like over 100 songs for Stevie Wonder. And here I am having a conversation with him. I mean, just unbelievable. Like so it’s not even business. It’s just like life opening.

D.J. Paris 19:42
Yeah, it’s it is it is remarkable. You get to have a lot of these really interesting conversations with interesting people have of substance. That’s that’s what I love doing. Having I like that the most. The best part for me about the show is just me being able to talk to somebody At A, hopefully a somewhat deeper level than, than I would be if I were to meet them just at a cocktail party maybe and just have a more more of a superficial conversation and you do get to meet some really interesting people. And you’re also serving the community. So there’s, I’m sure a sense of, you know, accomplishment there and just sort of contributing to something bigger than yourself. And just doing a lot of good and we’re kind of a win win all the way around. So win for the listeners who live in that area. Win for of course, the guest who gets exposure and a win for you. Because, of course, you get some additional exposure as well. And just also you get to bring all this to life. Yeah, so must be. And so the reason we’re talking about this, aside from featuring, of course, I Aaron, and all the cool things he does is is this is an idea that Aaron had he went to, you know, a conference session at NARA in 2017. I still say now, I need to remember it’s NAR I when I when I went to the NAR conference, I kept saying no. And people were like, you really should say NAR so little pro tip for anyone. But when you were there, and he just walked, you know, went into a session and here you are now with this, you know, and you have two successful shows, actually. But we just, you know, I would just say to directly to our audience, anybody can do this, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be excellent at it right? Not everyone’s going to be good at it. But it’s something that really anybody can do. I’m curious, did you when you first started your first podcast? Did you set a sort of a commitment to yourself? I know I did, where my boss said, if you’re going to do this, you got to commit to at least a year, because he goes otherwise you’re gonna get three episodes, and no one’s gonna listen, and you’re going to be disappointed and not want to do it. So I’m curious if if you had any of those challenges, because it i We did not have a ton of listeners right away on our show.

Aaron Masliansky 21:49
Um, no, I really didn’t have any kind of commitment like that it was kind of just open ended. And I I really just enjoyed it. And just it what drove me is the, the constant opening up of different opportunities I’d never thought possible of who I get to speak to, and all these different types of things. So I just kept doing it. And then when the pandemic started, I thought, Well, I gotta shut stuff down. And then I discovered zoom, like many others, and I was doing like three episodes a week, it was just insane. And then I went on to the radio, I got contacted by a radio station, and I had it on the radio for about six months. And then after about 100 episodes, I’m like, I need a break. So I did put on pause inside the scab was on pause for about a year and I just started it up again. But yeah, it’s just, it’s just was fun. And you know, another thing too, was, I got to even speak with Monica Neubauer, who does the NAR podcast and went on her show to tell the story. And at the NAR conference in San Diego, I got to sit down with her and talk with her and thank her. So there’s some just like really cool things that really just make you feel good about, you know, life and kind of being able to be grateful to other people. And, you know, I have no media training. Either. Anyone can do this. I mean, everyone’s got a podcast, I guess. But not everybody continues to do it. So I think the commitment, and just the consistency is key.

D.J. Paris 23:27
Yeah, I think so too. It is, it is just like putting the blinders on. And just like, it’s there, I almost think of it as like exercise, it’s just, I just have to do it. I don’t always want to do it. But I, of course, always am happy when it’s when I completed it just like a workout. Like I don’t want to do push ups. But it’s a good idea. And, and also at the end of it, I always go Oh, that was five is actually okay. And I and it was a lot of fun. So we encourage our audience to to do this. Aaron and I are not, you know, we’re not communication majors. We didn’t have you know, radio shows in college, although actually I wrote for a radio show now that I think about it, but I was not on air. Certainly not trained that way. And in here, both of us are, you know, hosting shows. So, so when I first was exposed to you is at this dinner in, in San Diego last fall. And I they were introducing you with this sort of global real estate focus. And I am like, I don’t even really know what that means. So I would love for you to talk to our audience about you know, global real estate and sort of your thoughts about it, what you do there and just anything you think our audience which are essentially all realtors might want to know or might want to learn about it.

Aaron Masliansky 24:42
Well, I’ll tell you how I got started in global real estate and then get to to answer your question. So one of the things I’m really interested in is in global affairs, and I mentioned at the start of this conversation, when I was in college, I either want to go into urban planning and developments. or international development and global affairs, my, my master’s degree is actually focused on international development. And when I was in college it was during the Iraq War. And I took this class in Energy and Security. And I was like, oh my god, this is so interesting, like, I’m going to move to DC. And that’s going to be my life. But I got this great opportunity that went with it. So when I was able to go full time into real estate, it kind of gave me flexibility to be able to do things that I never would have been able to do before. One of those was to go to an event from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which is a think tank in Chicago. They have amazing speakers that come in all the time. And, you know, it’s kind of intimidating to go to this. I had no anybody but I’m like, you know, it like Okay, finally, at the time I knew about for years, and they went, and I actually heard Garry Kasparov speak for the first Wow, my first event. Kasparov, by

D.J. Paris 25:53
the way, for anyone who doesn’t know is one of the all time great chess grandmasters,

Aaron Masliansky 25:59
yes, he’s an all time great chess grandmaster and he is also a peace activist, and vehemently anti Putin. And he was warning everybody about what can happen with Russia, if if Putin has not checked, and basically everything that he predicted has come to pass. But it was amazing. I got to meet him. I took a picture with him. I see got, he signed my book and everything. I mean, I was just like starstruck. And I said, I gotta keep coming to this stuff. So I started continually going to events there. Then they had an application for a young ambassador, young professional ambassador program, I signed up I got into it, which was blew my mind. And I got really involved in global affairs. And they, when, when the council saw that I was doing this podcast, they they invited me to interview one of their fellow senior fellows at a fundraiser events on stage. And it was great exposure. It was an amazing opportunity. And I met this person, his name’s Mark Peterson, he’s, he was in charge of this organization called intersect Illinois, which is state led organization to help bring in foreign direct investments into the state of Illinois. He’s like, Aaron, you should get involved in global real estate. I said, What’s global real estate? What do you mean? Because just like when you’re saying, TJ, so he explained to me what it was, and he put me in touch with the person who was in charge of global real estate for Illinois realtors, and somebody else who runs IHC global, which Judith Hermanson and that’s an organization that is basically owned by NAR, and they do research and different things on international developments around the world. So I learned about these things. I was kind of directed to get involved and start to go to different events from the global real estate Council at the Chicago Association of Realtors. I then joined them and started I basically what it is the idea of global real estate is that is helping bring buyers and sellers together from around the world. So let’s say I have somebody who wants to buy something in say Costa Rica, I can make the connection because you build your network with other realtors around the world. There’s a special designation that you can get called CIPS, which is the Certified International Property specialist through NAR. By the way, you could take the class at Chicago’s Association of Realtors in September, shout out for Maurice Hampton, who will be speaking of the teaching it and you you get connected this network, you can be part of their Facebook group and everything, and you can make referrals. And then on the other side, it’s people who are coming inbound. So where you are. So people may say, Well, I’ve never done a global real estate sale. And I’ll ask you, have you ever worked with somebody who was born outside the United States and bought real estate with you? Well, that’s a global real estate deal. So I certainly have done a lot of that in Chicago since it’s such a global city. And I think it just it also teaches you about how to work with different people’s backgrounds, expectations, culture, it makes you a more well rounded person. I think it’s really important in any day and age, but just in terms of understanding diversity, and it just makes you a more well rounded person. So I started going to all their different events. I applied to be part of the global real estate Council. I actually went on a trade mission with them to Thailand. And that was an incredible trip and I got to learn all about real estate in Thailand because the Chicago, Nancy’s Sumi Mandy, she is the has a strong connection to Thailand and she’s part of Chicago Association of Realtors, former head of the global real estate Council former head of the organization The president, and it was just incredible learning about that. So then I, when I came back, I got more involved in the council itself. And now I’m the chairman and we lead different programs for education, networking, we will do another trade mission likely in 2023. If nothing crazy happens with COVID. But it is super cool, very interesting group of people. Yeah, it

D.J. Paris 30:23
sounds really rewarding. And I was curious, too, because so and I’m curious to get your opinion about this. Because oftentimes, when I hear about people from outside of the United States, buying real estate, oftentimes it’s in a, from an investor’s sort of objective. And it doesn’t always, of course, somebody or anything here from another country, of course, that that counts do. But how I’m curious about did that. And again, you were sort of in the investor space, as well working with developers and, and sort of understanding that, but I’m curious, does that give you more exposure to understanding what foreign investors who are looking to buy real estate in the country in the United States, does that give you more experience and understanding about how to work with those clients and maybe what their objectives are?

Aaron Masliansky 31:14
Absolutely, because you’re, you’re exposed to their their needs, and it may be different than somebody who’s just looking to buy the house, they may be looking at the United States and several other countries at the same time. And you have to be able to understand what the differences the nuances are, and the advantages to them of buying in the US versus, say buying something in Dominican Republic or in Canada, and what the restrictions may be for them. And you have to be able to know what potential there is for financing. You know, I started this other podcast called The Real Estate diplomat, which is all about global real estate, and also takes into global affairs. And I’ll talk a little bit more about it. But I big through that podcast, somebody reached out to me who was interested in real estate in the Dominican Republic, and we got to season in Germany. So, you know, we started speaking about all the different nuances of it, and, you know, talking about different other potentials, and trying to get him information on that requires you to go outside your comfort zone, and find people who you can trust to be able to make that referral, and make sure that they’re going to get well taken care of. And, and through that you get to learn more about other countries, and you could speak about it. So you might be at a dinner party, and somebody’s talking about some country or whatever, and you happen to know a lot about it. I mean, that’s, that’s empowering. That is

D.J. Paris 32:39
that is really empowering. And I guess maybe in both of the topics we’ve been sort of chatting about was getting involved in podcasting, which was something that you did with essentially no experience or not a ton of sort of thought, or fourth sight, it wasn’t like a lifelong dream to have your own show. And then also getting into global real estate, which actually was sort of a major passion of yours. And you’ve now been able to explore both of those through real estate, which, which I think is, you know, with this industry and being an agent, which I think is particularly interesting. And you were saying that, especially with this global real estate, you wouldn’t have had the time to get involved with it, how would you have been maybe in a different different profession or different full time sort of, you know, traditional nine to five job. So I find that particularly interesting that you’ve got to explore some of these additional sort of avenues of fulfillment. Because maybe, maybe because of now your schedule is more how you make it

Aaron Masliansky 33:33
100% It would never have happened if I had a traditional nine to five job or a nine to six shop because you just you can’t get out of the office. And you can’t go down there somebody’s you know, asking you Hey, what are you doing? And it’s with real estate, yeah, I could, I could, okay, maybe I’m doing a listing presentation for somebody at two o’clock in the afternoon. I’ve got showings from four to five or whatever it may be. And then I’ve got a Chicago Council event at six or whatever. It allowed me to be able to go and have that flexibility. Now the pandemic has changed things in terms of when timing is and everything and I mean with Zoom, it was so easy, but not nearly as fulfilling. But now things seem to be coming back together. Like they used to be which is a little overwhelming, but it’s awesome to be able to see people and and just physically and learn so much more. It’s wonderful.

D.J. Paris 34:34
Yeah, I I’m enjoying it too. I had a meeting this morning with somebody who was thinking of joining our company. He was brand new agent and he came in and I haven’t had anybody physically come into the office in a long time. Just a couple of people over the last two and a half years or so. It’s everything else has been over zoom like you were saying and I had to even think and I’m sure everybody listening who’s a practicing Realtor will appreciate this isn’t Like, I went, he was here. And I was like, Oh, somebody’s actually here. And I went to go, Wait, am I supposed to shake hands I kind of forgot what the protocol are or what the maybe the most safe thing to do, of course, is not to shake hands. But I had to sort of fumble through it. Like you were saying, it could be a bit overwhelming, because I had to think it through like, I’ve never thought about shaking hands as a as a challenge as a potentially unsafe thing, right. Now, of course, we have to start and I’m sure every realtor I’m curious. Just because I’m not a practicing agent, when you meet clients now, are you shaking hands? Or what do most people seem to want to do?

Aaron Masliansky 35:33
I’m shaking hands, I, you know, I have gone through so much anxiety of the pandemic. But I’m really trying to just shift and live. Because like, going in October to San Diego to that conference. Definitely was anxiety provoking to be around so many people. But it was nice to be there, it was nice to go to dinner. And here, you know, just people kind of poured their hearts out. I mean, it was really, really kind of beautiful. But you know, and then we have more COVID cases, and now we do too. But I just need to get out there and and see people and I and if they don’t want to I, if somebody seems hesitant, I think I’ll hold off. And, you know, I’m washing my hands after too. But but it is nice to shake a hand to see people to be there in person. And, you know, the real estate diplomats, I’ve talked to people who are all around the world and people in Chicago, I’ve had some conversations in person. But one of the I, I’m not doing that show quite as much right now I’m focusing more on inside the scabs. And one of the reasons is, is because I want to just sit down and have the conversation in person with the people. And it’s it’s nice. And you know, this is great, too. You know, we’re remote right now. But it’s nice to try to get back into that swing of things and hopefully stay healthy. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 36:56
it could not agree more. It’s, it’s, it is nice. And you’re right though there I even have anxiety as well, going into public events, not not tremendous anxiety. But it’s something that I used to have zero wings, or very little anxiety about going into a public space for lots of people. But now, you know, it’s just we just took a flight last week, and you didn’t have to wear masks anymore. And we had been flying throughout the pandemic. And we were always wearing masks. And so it’s it was like, Oh, we can take our masks off. And then that felt weird. Like you’re naked is Yeah, yeah. And it just feels like you’re doing something where I felt like I was doing something wrong, like, oh, this, this. Yeah.

Aaron Masliansky 37:37
I mean, but even like with real estate, like throughout the whole time, I mean, I was showing properties like even at the start, and it was it was completely nerve racking and nobody knew what to do. But it’s just, I feel like we’re in a different space.

D.J. Paris 37:50
We are, it’s nice to start to go back to normal. And I’m going to we’re going to pause just for a moment. So we can talk about one of our sponsors. But before we do, I just want to, we always ask our guests a little peel back the curtain because I’m such I’m really calling myself out because we ask our guests to complete these these questionnaires. So we can have some stories to talk about. And 95% of the time, maybe even 99% of the time, I never get to these. And so I absolutely want to um, so I’m making a point to say it out loud so that as soon as we come back from the break, we’re going to get right back into some of your funny real estate experiences. But before we do, I do want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor. It’s actually one of our favorite companies in the real estate tech space, which is follow up boss. Now after I’ve interviewed hundreds of top Realtors all over the country for the show. And actually the CRM that is used by more than any other of our guests. Of course, follow a boss and let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level. Now follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Now don’t take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the United States uses follow a boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Now follow up boss integrates with over 250 other systems so you can keep your current tools and lease or lead sources. And here’s the best part they have a seven day a week support so you’ll get the help that you need when you need it. So few tech companies have weekend support and of course Realtors work weekends. Now get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real podcast listeners a 30 day free trial now that’s twice as much time as they give everybody else so oh yeah, no credit card required. either. They’re so confident that you’re gonna use that you’re gonna continue to use their service that you don’t even have to pay anything or even give them your payment information upfront, but only if you visit this special URL which is follow up boss.com forward slash real wit so follow up boss.com forward slash real. That’s for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now we’ll get back to our episode Aaron I am very excited to hear first of all, I would also just like to say I love the fact that you married your college sweetheart. I only know one person that did that. Out of all the friends I had in college, and even today 20 Some years later, we it’s still just such a cool thing. So I love you met your wife, I’m guessing down at University of Illinois.

Aaron Masliansky 40:22
Yeah, she was dating one of my best friends. And I met her I’m like, Oh, my God. I was like, I’m like that. She’s awesome. And then they broke up a couple of months later, I had nothing to do with it. And then we started talking and it was like, wow, you know, thank you, Henry, for for dating Stacey. And we’ve been together ever since. And it worked out pretty well. And he ended up standing up at our wedding after a few years of a little bit tense tenseness

D.J. Paris 40:53
you still you stole his girl? Sure. Yeah, no, no, I didn’t know. I know I’m being silly. But but that is I think that’s such a cool, cool story. i We, in my high school, we only we have one couple that that got together in high school and stayed together. And so I don’t have too many examples of that in my life. So I appreciate I just think that’s really cool. But let’s talk let’s talk about, because I just love this story about an ad that you ran in the newspaper here, the local paper here. It’s called The Chicago Tribune, very prominent paper in the country. But could you talk a little bit about the experience that you had there?

Aaron Masliansky 41:32
Yeah, so I put this ad out, I think it might have been 2015 or so. And it was on the front page of the real estate section on Sunday. I thought, well, this could be a good opportunity to get my word out and advertise an open house. So I do this, and then someone I know, takes a clipping of it. And he says, you know, says something about it and posted on to Facebook, like, you know, commenting on my hair, people comments on my hair that they love, like how full it is. And I don’t know, it’s, I have good hair, I guess. So then people started photoshopping it. And they turned it into a series of movie covers. So I was in Greece, I was in Scarface I was in Terminator two. I was I mean, all these different movies, it was Howard Stern, private parts, who by the way, is an inspiration for doing podcasting. Sure, for me, but I mean, it was just crazy. It was just this huge series. And it was one of the funniest things like people totally goof that me. And I absolutely love it. It was pretty funny.

D.J. Paris 42:38
That is funny. And that’s, you know, whenever it’s funny, there’s, there’s good versions of that where your friends sort of have some fun with you and send it on social media. And then there’s the Hey, I bought the bench back ad and somebody has colored in my teeth. But so it looks like I have you know, or I’d say black into one of my eyes. And, you know, so there’s the fun, cool, funny version that we all laugh at. And then there’s that. Oh, that’s a shame.

Aaron Masliansky 43:05
That said to my billboard.

D.J. Paris 43:08
Exactly.

Aaron Masliansky 43:08
I got threats about that. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. So far, so good. Oh, that’s

D.J. Paris 43:16
great. And only because I just it’s so funny, we ask all of our guests to give us like, you know, an unusual experience and, and real estate experience and almost always it’s like sexual, it’s like, well, I walked in on somebody and they were having sex or, you know, they were by themselves having sex or with someone else. And it’s a lot of like, or I found some sex toys, or it’s usually that and so I stopped sort of even talking about those because I realized like, that would be every show, I’d be giving a basically the same story. But this one’s pretty unique. This one is not a sexual story. So I love it. But but as a guy, I can just I can just appreciate, you know, the the immaturity of us guys being able to handle this, or I shouldn’t speak for you, but my immaturity I would like you to mind sharing the story of the of the squatter that you walked in on?

Aaron Masliansky 44:06
Well, I mean, the squatters one thing, and this this squatter was. So I had two stories. I think the one that you’re referencing actually was for an open house. And I was preparing for an open house. And yeah, I always want to make sure all the lights are on. Everything’s clean. There’s nothing out. I go into this bathroom. There’s a tampon, use tampon on the countertop and the vanity. Wow. And I’m like all right. What the hell do you do? just grabbed a bunch of toilet paper wrapped it up.

D.J. Paris 44:41
Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Masliansky 44:42
What’s a dedication to the craft I guess?

D.J. Paris 44:44
I think maybe women don’t always appreciate that when skies if we ever come across that which seems to be pretty rare. I’ve asked other guys. It’s like we almost look at it like it’s a bomb that’s about to go off and we have to defuse it. And we’re like not sure exactly what to do. We’re not sure exactly what we’re looking at. But it was it was scary for some reason. It’s

Aaron Masliansky 45:08
scary. It’s scary. And I have plenty of I mean, look, everyone who’s listening to this is probably a realtor, you guys probably all have these crazy experiences. I mean, I’ve walked in on a squatter, like, it’s just that was scary. I’ve seen other types of things over the years. But that was that one with the tampon that sticks out

D.J. Paris 45:27
when you walked in on a squatter. Did was there a moment of was there a safety concern as well? Like, yeah, could be a dangerous situation.

Aaron Masliansky 45:37
Yeah, I, I’m going around with my clients, and we walk into this house, they had shown like two or three times before to other people. And I knew nobody was living there. And I walk in and it’s got like, the smell like the smoke. And I’m like, I don’t recognize this. But okay, so we go on, we’re upstairs. It’s a ranch house. Then we go down to the basement, and I start to go turn on the lights, pistols on the lockbox. And all of a sudden, I see this little pop tart on the ground, and there’s ants crawling all over. It’s disgusting. I’m like, what, what the hell’s going on here? Then my client says, Dude, there’s a squatter. There’s a squatter. She said that she’s in the closet. I’m like, Oh, my God, and this woman, she must have been like, 20 pops out. And she’s like, Oh, I’m just packing up. I’m just leaving. And we look at each other like, Huh. And we decide to just, we just turn around, we leave. And I call the other agent, the listing agent. I’m like, you’ve got a problem. And goodbye. Yeah, it’s,

D.J. Paris 46:43
it’s, it’s actually like, Yeah, it’s interesting, though, because because you think like, as much as men, maybe we have a bit more confidence in our ability to handle the uncertainty of that situation. Certainly, we don’t have to deal with as much physical uncertainty as women do. Again, I’m speaking generally, of course, not, not everyone’s the same. But I always think like, gosh, women have felt so much more danger headed their way or at least possible potential danger. And I always think, you know, that could easily that could have been a dangerous guy, or a dangerous woman to in that closet, you could have been a 90 pound woman or 100 pound woman walking in there with your client. And it’s, it’s something to always think about safety. And I know as guys, we don’t maybe think about it quite as much as women do. But it is something to really think about, because I think just about everybody’s had some version of that story happen, right? Where it’s like, oh, that could have been really bad.

Aaron Masliansky 47:41
Well, you worry about it, you worry about it, you know, open houses, for sure. You don’t know who’s coming in? Yeah, I think it’s important to let your spouse or somebody know where you are, what time you’re going to be check in. I always like to meet with new buyers. First before I go show them properties. And I know that probably is cost me some business, but it’s probably not the worst thing in the world. If somebody

D.J. Paris 48:06
just by curiosity, I just want to ask you, just because I wouldn’t have guessed this in so Aaron just said, I meet with buyers first. And maybe that’s even cost me business. Just curious. Why would that cost? Why? Why do you think that’s costly business? I would I wouldn’t, as somebody who doesn’t practice real estate, I wouldn’t see that as a negative at all. But do some buyers? Just go? I don’t want to do that. I just want to go see homes? Or what are what’s the or were you sort of saying maybe they won’t like your personality or what was

Aaron Masliansky 48:34
nervous? I think, you know, sometimes when people buy ads on different websites, people, there’s a misconception to the public, potentially, that they think that you’re the listing agent, and they’re just requesting a showing, they just want to get in and see the house. I mean, quite frankly, they may really have an agent, and they’re just doing stuff on their own. Who knows. So they call you and then you say, Hey, I’d like to meet with you first at my office, or this or that. And they turn them off and be like, well, actually, let me just find the listing agent and call them or whatever it is. So I think that’s where it potentially can cost you business. But I would say as I’ve gone on throughout my career, it probably hasn’t. It’s probably enhanced my business because what it’s done is I set expectations, I learned about what the people wants, we talk about agency, I have them sign a buyer representation agreement, and now everyone’s comfortable with that. I get it. But I think it’s the proper thing to do to set up the relationship. So then you have a successful transaction where everybody everyone’s happier at the end of the day. So that’s why I do it. I mean, if I was losing business left and right because of that, I wouldn’t, I would strongly reconsider what I’m doing. But I think it’s, it’s best for the relationship. It’s best for your business, it’s best for your safety on an unknown.

D.J. Paris 49:50
It’s very much similar to a consultancy type relationship, right? So if we think like what do consultants do, they come in they interview the client, they learn about what the person’s challenges are, and then they come back with a solution. So it’s really no different from what a consultant or professional consultant does. But I am, I am amazed at how often Realtors don’t maybe look at the beginning of a relationship with a customer, as in that sense of doing discovery, right. And that’s basically what you’re doing as attorneys would call it right discovery.

Aaron Masliansky 50:26
And now it’s so easy with Zoom, you know, I have a Calendly link, I have people set up their time they want to meet at my office, they want to meet on Zoom, they want a phone call, whatever, it’s easier for them, pick a time boom. And it’s like, it just sets them up to think like, oh, this is a professional I’m working with, it’s so much better.

D.J. Paris 50:43
I love it. That is such a great tip for anyone, especially and again, if you’re buying leads. So what Aaron is really saying about costing businesses, a lot of times the lead providers, you know, will tell you just schedule the showing, even though it’s not your listing person wants to see this property they’ve shown interest, don’t don’t take them to a Starbucks and get to know them, or don’t have them come to your office because that that sort of stops them from what they want. But, and I think maybe generally speaking, that’s not terrible advice for that sort of lead. But I love the idea of pushing somebody through a more professional sales funnel or process because ultimately, I think that does, you’re right, I think that does set you apart. Like you were saying maybe they already have an agent or somebody they’re talking to. And all of a sudden now they’re with somebody who’s sitting down and really getting to know them before going, I’m gonna just open the door and let you walk in and see what tell me what you you know, you like it or you don’t. So I actually think that’s a really, really strong point. But I know I’m understanding what you’re saying because you know, Zillow, and those companies who sell leads will say, really, we encourage you not to do that we want you just to set the appointment, meet them at the property. And then you can have the sort of the meeting but but I love I love that, that you do that. Because I just I just think it’s more professional. So and then the right, the right kind of client will really appreciate that probably the client you want to work with is the one that’s going to be like, that’s a good thing.

Aaron Masliansky 52:09
Absolutely. It is. And it pushes away people who may have, you know, spent a lot of time with you who aren’t actually serious, you know, a lot of times I I see on different Facebook pages with realtors. And everyone’s saying, oh, like, number one thing, you got to make sure they have a pre approval letter. Yeah, that’s important to make sure that they’re qualified to be able to purchase. But I think the number one thing is have that initial conversation, see how you can help them how you can be a value to them? Do they? Do they need a lender to speak to? Do they have questions about this? Do they even know what the process is? Like? Are they from the United States? And Are they familiar with with how you buy property here, you don’t know that until you actually start to have the conversation.

D.J. Paris 52:53
I 100% agree. And I because you work in the global space as well as the sort of local space, I just wanted to give this piece of advice that I heard that I just realized, when you’re dealing with people who are of a different, possibly a different religion, different ethnicity, different background, culturally, different race, even, of course, there’s different traditions and customs with each sort of group of people, how we, you know, group people together, or how they identify as a group. And I was listening to someone speak just a couple of weeks ago, and they said, I had this little tip, because they work with a lot of international clients, they said, Ask anyone who has a different, you know, sort of set of traditions, then you if there are any important days in their calendar, or during the course of the transaction that are either religious themed or maybe tied to their, you know, their country of origin or, or their, you know, whatever particular, you know, their predilections, and knowing that, you know, certain religions and certain backgrounds and ethnicities have certain days that are considered holy days, and, and there’s just, you know, things that we may not know, unless we were part of that tradition. And so knowing that is like really helpful, because you’re like, well, we’re not scheduling a showing on that day, and we can’t do the inspection on this day. Like, that’s something I went that is so simple and so brilliant, and I never thought about it. So I just wanted to share that. It’s a huge, great point. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Aaron, Aaron is the podcast host of two shows, and we’ll mention his two shows, we have links to both of those in the show notes. The first one is called the real estate diplomat which is about global real estate. So definitely check that out. And you can and then the second one is called inside the scope, which is about stepping stone, which is Skokie and Evanston to suburbs that are side by side here in Chicago. And I encourage all of our audience to check out inside the SC Evanston not because you may be from somewhere else in the country and you don’t know or care about those two suburbs. That’s not the reason I want you to listen, I want you to listen to see what Aaron has built for his local community and and how it works, and then maybe even go duplicate that yourself in your own local community. So this is something that it is just a perfect example of what you can do. And it’s a heck of a lot of fun to build up that brand. And I’m curious, does anyone else because Scott Winston is kind of a known a very known term has, does anyone else have a scab instant podcast, as far as you know, are you the first

Aaron Masliansky 55:24
there was another group that had a Skokie podcast called it Skokie. And they did 50 episodes, and I was on it, and I had them on mine. We shared and there’s other people who have Evanston podcasts, you know, but not a scab instance, Gevinson is actually a part of Skokie that has an Evanston mailing address, and shares the school district and whatnot. So it’s a play on words, but no, but no one else is competing in the stevinson space with me.

D.J. Paris 55:52
And I didn’t even mean that in a in a joking way. Although I know it sounds sort of silly. No, no, but it’s a good question. Well, it’s what’s interesting is there’s so much opportunity, right to find a niche or when it comes to podcasts in your community, you know, maybe there’s a certain you know, neighborhood, in the community you work in, that’s, that you’re really passionate about, or at Aaron’s, of course, passionate about his local community. And, and so and people who live in that stevinson area are very passionate about that as well. Because I think that if I remember correctly, from what my friends told me, it’s you get the benefits of Evanston sort of their own. Is it that they have their own like police and their own public notes.

Aaron Masliansky 56:36
You get Skokie? All Skokie services. So I had it backwards. Yeah. And but you get the Evanson School District, and you get the Evanston post office. So this

D.J. Paris 56:47
is a very desirable thing for people who are looking in that area. And now Aaron has a podcast, not just talking about the benefits, but all the cool stuff going on in the area, all the local businesses, the local political players, and you now have more exposure, of course, in your real estate practice as a result.

Aaron Masliansky 57:05
Absolutely. And if anyone wants to chat with me, I’m happy. I’m happy to be a resource, as well. So feel free to reach out to me.

D.J. Paris 57:14
Well, thank Aaron, thank you so much for being on our show, by the way to learn about everything. Aaron is up to Aaron messalonskee.com. I’m going to post a link to that also in our show notes. And I will want everyone to check out you can find his podcast there you can see videos he’s done. And of course learn more about Aaron and his his passions. Aaron, we want to thank you for being on our show. This has been such a pleasure for me. And I’m really excited that we have we had you on today. And you really provided a lot of value for our audience. Before we sign off. I just want to ask everyone not only to go check out Aaron’s two shows, please, please do but also tell a friend about this podcast, just think of one other agent that you think would be would get a lot of value from listening to Aaron and send them a link. Easiest way to do that. Just head on over head, send them over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. Well, Aaron, on behalf of our audience, we want to thank you we know how busy you are with all your volunteer effort. And also want to thank you for all your volunteer effort for the real estate community. You are somebody who truly does give back and we didn’t feature a ton of that on the show. But Aaron is just incredibly involved in the industry. And and also, of course, on behalf of Aaron and myself. We want to thank all of our listeners and our viewers for continuing to listen and support our show. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Well, thanks, Aaron.

Aaron Masliansky 58:36
Thank you. It’s a real pleasure and thanks everyone for listening

Welcome to the May episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!

In this episode Joel talks about the raised rates and the importance of agents’ knowledge of the market when advising clients. Joel once more emphasizes the the importance of having a lending partner who can educate you on the important topics of the business. Joel also discusses the appraisal gap and what to do when an appraisal comes in low. Last, Joel talks about his relationships with partner real estate agents and its benefits.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Joel can be reached at [email protected] and 773.654.2049.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today we’re going to be discussing what real estate agents can do right now to pivot to adjust for rising interest rate environments to keep your business strong. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show today, once again is our monthly series titled learn with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. Now, Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. And he’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And he’s got to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. So last year alone, Joel gave back almost $300,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with them. And that puts Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. In fact, there’s over 400,000 loan officers in the United States, Joel is actually ranked number 137. Last year he closed 619 sales is highest amount ever for $249 million in loans already this year. And we haven’t even updated the numbers. So these are old numbers. And I’m sure they’re much higher now. But already this year is Joel’s close over 70 transactions for over 27 million. And Joel Welcome once again to Oh, I’m sorry, my apologies before i for i get to actually welcoming Joel, if you if our listeners or viewers are looking to work with a loan officer, we cannot more highly recommend Joel he’s the very best we’ve ever worked with. He can be reached by the way at his email address, which is [email protected]. Very easy. [email protected]. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him at 773-654-2049 Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel, welcome back to the show.

Joel Schaub 3:13
Hey, DJ, thanks so much for having me on. And maybe the Cubs keep losing I’m gonna have to drop that I am not a fair weather fan. But uh, you can’t keep losing as many games as they’re doing. So we’ll see. Kind of like the market right now. Things are up in the air. Right. We talked about it just before we got on and interest rates are moving. And there’s a lot of activity and so I’m excited to be back.

D.J. Paris 3:35
Yeah, it’s it’s a really, there’s a lot of tension right now, I think that agents are feeling, you know, there’s course we have low inventory, we’ve got raising rising rates, the Fed has, you know, changed that there’s a lot of news, there’s a lot of commotion about it, and people are freaking out. But I think this is a good time to reset and sort of talk about what’s really happening. So we can all take a breath. And maybe things aren’t quite as chaotic as as they are appearing in the media and in the news at the moment.

Joel Schaub 4:09
Well, the big thing here, if you’re an agent listening right now that you’re not going to hear when you’re looking at the media, right is that they keep talking about all the rate increases coming down the line, how many times the Fed agent is going to raise rates this year, and I’m here to tell you that most of this is already baked into mortgage rates that we’re seeing, okay. And just think about it. It wasn’t, but six months ago, where rates were hovering around 3%, and now they’re over 5%. Yeah, the feds have only raised rates by 75 basis points. So if you’re actually following the math and looking at this, you can really pick up new clients and strengthen relationships with your current clients by leading with education and value. And the idea here is that just because the feds are going to raise rates again several times this year, does not I mean, the day that they raised rates, they call it a mortgage company and say, Today’s the day to raise rates, most of that’s baked in. And we can see that right now. Now that rates are above 5%.

D.J. Paris 5:10
Yeah, so I guess that’s a really important thing for our listeners to understand is that mortgage companies have economist on staff, they know or can act pretty accurately predict what the Fed is going to do. And in anticipation of that, they make those adjustments so that they’re not caught with their pants down when the Fed does make a decision. So a lot of what we’re seeing in the news can create stress and worry for an agent or for a client, but the reality of it is, you know, lending institutions have known that this is coming. And let’s also sort of just remember, you know, historically, five and a half percent is what is that the sort of current at 30? year average? Right, right, around five and a half percent these days? For 30 years?

Joel Schaub 5:56
Yeah, a little bit below that? Yep. Absolutely.

D.J. Paris 5:58
I mean, let’s, let’s keep in perspective that, you know, we it’s always that thing where it’s easy to forget, right? We have such short memories, and it’s easy to forget that, you know, well, yeah, we were at these historic lows, you know, 1824 months ago? And yes, of course, okay, we’re not there. Now. It’s okay, we can, we still have a lot of purchasing power. To me, the bigger challenge isn’t so much lending rates, its inventory, I mean, we can focus on lending rates, because this number ticks up, you know, or ticks down, and we can feel good or bad about that. But the end of the day, if there aren’t homes to buy, you know, that’s that, to me, is the real challenge.

Joel Schaub 6:38
There’s gonna be an opportunity here right now, and I’m already prepping a lot of my buyers, as we film this here today, it’s, it’s the middle of May. And what we’re going to see is we’re not going to see rates drop anytime soon, we already know the CDA rates are moving up. However, most of it’s baked in. And that means this summer, and into the fall when properties are on the market. And maybe they’re on the market for seven or 10 days, that’s a lot longer than it’s been on the market. And a buyer will have the opportunity. And this is my prediction to go in and submit offers without so many offers coming in, because all of the buyers that were right on the cusp of qualifying, because they could qualify when rates were at two and a half percent. They’re gone. Yeah, this might be controversial, but we’re only going to help so many buyers each year, as agents, we’re only gonna have so many buyers that we help going forward, it’s going to be slightly easier to help those buyers submit offers that are going to win, because there just truly won’t be as much competition, as rates continue to rise. And that’s an opportunity that I can be very excited about.

D.J. Paris 7:49
You’re right. And we have to also remember, again, this sort memory is like when rates were that low, you know, it really opened the floodgates for a lot of people who, you know, maybe previous prior to that wouldn’t have been able to qualify to purchase, you know, certain levels of property. And now we’re seeing the that receipt a bit. Right. So there was this huge, the floodgates were open. Everyone sort of, you know, trampled into the into the yard, and everyone got access. And now it’s like, Okay, now we have to now we have to limit access, because let’s remember what it was like when he got 30 offers on a property. You know, yes, that was great for the seller. But for the buyer, not so great, right? Not so much fun for the loan officer not so great. And also for, for the agent representing that buyer, that was a stressful time. So I actually think, you know, it’s I always like balance. So I would like to see a balance place where yeah, maybe rates are a little higher, but at least you know, there’s going to be hopefully some inventory out there. And then you have a few days to actually make a decision on a property as opposed to oh my god, I have to submit it my offer before I even go see the property.

Joel Schaub 9:04
So if I’m an agent, and I’m hearing this a lot, right, I’m hearing buyers ask agents, did I miss the boat? Should I not buy now that rates are up over 5%. And the one thing that we got to kind of remember is if we’re renting a home right now and we’re renting for in our market $2,000 is pretty common for even just a one or two bedroom property in a nice neighborhood. That’s 24,000 a year, over four years. That’s $100,000. And that’s all money out the window. Right? Yeah. So we don’t need to sell anybody anything as agents. If I’m an agent today and I’m being asked by a first time buyer, should I buy or should I continue to rent? Just do the math, right? interest on rent is 100%. All of it goes right out the window. And if you’re paying rent that’s 100% rate of interest. It’s all money that you don’t get back at the end of the year. Are. Whereas rates at three and a half or even six and a half, that’s still a much better rate in terms of being lower than what we’re paying in rent. So that’s option one that we have as a talking point with first time buyers. And then the second is that this is not just a straight hill up DJ. In terms of rates, we know that when they go up, they do come back down. And the best thing about the mortgage business is it is a refinance a bull loan, meaning taking the rates that we can get today. And if they go down to three and a half, or four and a half again, in the future, you can refinance that loan, usually, with little to no cost if you’re working with the right mortgage people.

D.J. Paris 10:43
Yeah, I remember when I bought my first property in 2005. And I think my rate was about five and a half percent, maybe a little bit less than that. But somewhere in that neighborhood, I don’t exactly remember. And I remember it, but it was adjustable. It wasn’t a 30 year fixed. And it was I think it adjusted every two years. And I want to think it was a two year arm or a five year ARM. I can’t exactly remember, but it was adjustable. And it was told to me at that time rates are probably going to go up, you know, when this adjusts, it’s probably going to adjust up and I went, Oh, no. And they go, don’t worry, because we’ll be able to refinance in some capacity within that timeframe. It we’re going to figure this out, don’t worry, you’re not alone. You’re not the only person who is in this sort of, sort of vehicle. And, you know, we it’s so my point with all of this is all of these immediate sort of stresses that that seem to be the challenges ultimately end up getting figured out over time, right. But like low inventory, it gets figured out at some point, it’s stressful to day, but it won’t be stressful, maybe a year from now, looking back at today going oh, we were maybe we were being a bit over reactive to it. There are opportunities, there is a lot to do. And yes, as Joel just said, mortgages are refinancing for indefinitely, right? You can always find and there and like Joel said, things are cyclical things move. Things ebb and flow. So right now rates are on the way up, and at some point, they’ll be on their way down again. And so still, I don’t think there’s much cause for alarm right now, the biggest cause for alarm, I think, is inflation, right, we’ve got the Feds trying to do everything they can to make the price of things come come down. And that’s the most important thing. And that’s really all the Feds trying to do. As far as I can tell, that’s a good thing.

Joel Schaub 12:34
I love that you say that. And I made a name for myself years ago by doing the refinancing for clients after the OAE crash. And one big tip that I want to share with the agents that are listening or even just homeowners here that are listening, is that there’s always an option if you speak to the right mortgage professional to refinance the mortgage with no costs. And I want to explain how you could actually do that in under two minutes so that you have a leg up when this happens, because I’m already preparing for the next two to three years of everybody that’s buying right now, to get a follow up to them when rates do go down. Because it is not just straight up. There will be a time in the next couple of years, where rates are lower than they are today when the Fed stop raising rates, and it looks like this DJ back and oh wait no nine when rates did drop below 6%. Right? We’re saying oh, boy, it’s a bad time now. But we were pretty excited. When rates got into the fives. People had rates that were higher end rates literally did go down to 5%. And banks would call you like crazy and say do you want to refinance and the trick there as they’re making 1000s of dollars on the fees to refinance, right? There are title fees and appraisal fees and underwriting fees and processing. And it goes on and on. So of course, bank seven incentive to refinance a mortgage because of all the fees. So what you want to do is find out what the best rates in the market are. And in that time, they went down to 5%. And I helped clients and I got them locked in, it’s a 5.1%. Because if the rate was a little bit higher, they didn’t have to pay any fees. And I mean, nothing, no underwriting, no processing, no appraisal. And if you’re already at a rate of six and a quarter, you could go down to five and pay a bunch of money, or go down to 5.1 or 5.2 and pay nothing. So since I was upfront and honest and did the math taught them, if rates go even further down, we didn’t pay anything for this. Let’s take the lower rate for free. I literally did hundreds and hundreds of transactions over those years, where clients paid nothing and then when the market heated up, they had a friend in the business. So that’s the big trick is finding out what the rates are for a no cost refinance. And believe me, the time is coming. It’s not just gonna go up and up and up. It may go up a little bit further from here. spend the next couple of years there’ll be days and weeks, where rates are lower than they are now and we can refinance. And as an agent, I wouldn’t be spreading the word.

D.J. Paris 15:08
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course it is follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort, do not take my word for it. Robert SLAC, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. I think this really speaks to the larger point of having a lending partner that is able to give you these talking points like you’re giving our listeners. And I think that this is so critical because clients see the news, they react, they come to the agent or possibly the loan officer but probably the agent and say, oh my gosh, things things are going up. I’m freaking out. Agent then needs to have a partner to be able to say okay, how what do I say? And and the this is exactly what what we’re really talking about is, you know, the realtor doesn’t need to be the expert in lending, you know, sort of practices and where things are. But what the realtor does need to do is have somebody have a team of people that the realtor can call and say, Hey, how do I calm this person down? What can I talk to? How do I how do I phrase this? What What are what’s actually happening right now. And to me, that’s the greatest value and having these sort of partnerships is having somebody like Joel, to be able to say, Okay, let’s, let’s have this conversation, what how can I communicate what’s really happening? How can we cut through the noise of you know, the stress of the moment. But let’s also talk about the sort of creative ways, you know, let’s talk about appraisals, because at the end, we’re totally switching gears. But appraisals, I know are really, you know, think this has been very crazy right right now with the offers that have been coming in. And then oftentimes appraisals come in, under what the offer is. And then there becomes a challenge to sort of make up that difference. We are still seeing a lot of multiple offer situations with with buyers. So what’s your thoughts about appraisal Gap coverage and how agents can start to, you know, tell their clients how to begin anticipating that

Joel Schaub 18:24
last month was April and I know for a fact that appraisals are still front and center on listing agents minds when they’re looking at offers. I had 39 successful closings in April all 39 purchases. And to some degree, appraisal was one of the biggest things that we talked about upfront when we’re submitting the offer. Right. listing agents when we have a property that’s hot, they’re almost forcing the buyers to waive the appraisal, right meeting, if you even want to compete in this market, tell me that you’re not going to worry about what the appraised value is on your financing. And that can be scary. For a lot of buyers. It’s scary for agents, because they haven’t seen this even if you’ve been in the business for 20 years. The idea of wrapping your head around appraisal Gap coverage can be hard even if you’ve heard it before. Can I have so let’s go through it. And specifically what buyers do when an appraisal tells you what the fair market value is, but we’re willing to pay more than the fair market value. Right? Yeah, let’s be frank. That’s, that’s really what it is DJ to say that an appraisal came in low is kind of this throws it back to the mortgage company like they did something wrong, right? If my client is willing to pay $500,000 for all and it was listed for four ad and all the sales say that it’s worth 480 But they’re willing to pay 500 Did the appraisal came in low? Or did the appraisal tell the story of what it’s worth? But agents will say, Well, I had five offers, I had other offers that were higher the sales support a certain value. So and I’m on your side agents, I mean, I get it. So what we want to do is submit an offer designed to win. And if an appraisal comes in a little bit low, and a client has a good downpayment, the rate won’t change. Maybe they have to carry a small amount of insurance coverage for the mortgage insurance. But if you’re setting this up front correctly, and educating the buyer, I’m having buyers with good down payments, go in and just waive the appraisal. I teach them up front. That sounds scary, right? Yeah, yeah, but it’s not if we’re willing, and we have the money. And we’re working with an agent that knows what they’re doing, we can submit an offer and we need to win. Okay, if we need to win in this market to get a property, we aren’t so concerned if the property appraises 10, grand higher, 10 grand low, okay, we’ll either make up the difference with a larger downpayment, or we’ll have a small amount of mortgage insurance, and the mortgage insurance might be 50 to $60 a month. And talk to your lenders if you’re an agent right now, if you don’t know what happens when an appraisal comes in low, get on the phone with that trusted mortgage professional, he knows right now, he or she really knows how to walk you through appraisal Gap coverage, otherwise known as mortgage insurance.

D.J. Paris 21:28
Yeah, it’s, it’s one of those things where, you know, this is again, back to this trusted partnerships. You know, for information, I mean, this are what Realtors need. And I think this dovetails a great way to sort of wrap up our our episode talking about having a trusted partner that can help educate the client and the agent, so that the buyers and sellers are on the same page, they understand what’s at stake, and also having creative ways to to get offers accepted, when appraisals might be, you know, an issue when we’re over not overpaying. But when we’re paying more than than what is asked. So this is why it’s so critical to have a good team of lending partners with you. And Joel, I know you partner with a lot of agents. Can you talk a little bit about just as we wrap up? Why you partner with agent’s number one, and then what you do with them?

Joel Schaub 22:28
Well, the big thing here is what I figured out years ago is I was unable to control interest rates. I mean, go figure here we are now but I could control the fees that a buyer paid, because I was willing to take part of my commission and give it back to a buyer. So I found out early on that if I made a little bit less than every transaction, I could really grow the business and it doesn’t affect the amount of service that I provided. So I give a $1,500 closing cost credit out of my own commission, to every single buyer that buys a home where their loan amounts over $250,000. And that usually in the beginning, it really made the difference for certain buyers that just didn’t have enough money to pull deals together. And so even though I’m doing millions of dollars a month, sometimes 20 and 30 million, most of its just back to basics, teaching, educating and helping agents close just one more deal. And if I can help you close one more deal by giving a commission back to the buyer, that’ll that in turn, hopefully get them to refer you more business and it grows. And I created this newsletter so that agents don’t necessarily have to have all the talking points. I had an agent literally post this up in their office. And you guys can get added to the list. And it’ll give you just some great things that are happening in real time. We do it once per week Murray, who’s on my team is just an absolute Rockstar who helps me put this together, and it’s mortgage market update. And you can get added to the list, just email me [email protected] And just say add me to the mortgage list, right? There’s a mortgage market update that we do. And it talks about rates. And it talks about things that you can have conversations with just to sound one step above your competition. And that’s what it’s about is education, leading with value and just helping people and that’s what we’re about.

D.J. Paris 24:25
Wonderful well that is it I get I get your your weekly email with rate information. And it’s really helpful it what’s great about it is it gives me the exact information, I would need the little data points that you post graphs in there, but you also make it really digestible and a quick, easy read, but with a lot of specifics so that I can go out there and then, you know, be able to professionally have a conversation with a few data points. And so I can say actually, here’s here’s what we’re seeing. So definitely encourage Everybody listening to get on this email newsletter, easiest way to do it just email [email protected] asked to be put on his newsletter, and he will add it. His team will add that add you to that. And we just want to thank again, Joel. You know, Joel is such a great example of a trusted lending partner. And if you don’t have somebody like Joel, in your, in your quiver of with all your arrows, if you don’t have somebody like that, who’s able to get on the phone with your clients and talk to your talk to your buyers and sellers about what’s going on, then you need to find somebody like him, If not him, him. He would also like to speak with you too, if you’re interested in working with him directly. So definitely reach out to Joel get on his email newsletter. But also, if you have any questions about what’s going on in the lending world, you know, Joel works at guaranteed rate, they’re licensed in all 50 states he can assist, and if he can assist to connect you with somebody that can. But we want to thank Joel for coming on our show every month. Joel is a trusted partner to our show. He’s been providing this kind of advice ever since basically, we started and our audience loves it. So Joel, thank you on behalf of our audience for coming on yet again. And welcome back to Chicago. And we also want to on behalf of Joel and myself want to thank the audience for continuing to listen and support our show. One thing we ask that you do before you sign off or after you sign off rather, it’s just telephone I think of one other realtor that could benefit from this conversation that Joel and I had about, you know what’s going on in the world right now? And how do we talk about it, you know, in a intelligent way with our clients and send them a link to our to this episode, you can find every episode we’ve ever done at our website, keeping it real pod.com. And also anywhere podcasts are served, just look for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. But Joel, we will see you next month. And very excited to continue having a conversations around rates. And also and beyond rates Joel has is really a marketing genius. So we’re going to we’re going to not only talk about rates going forward, because that’s what’s you know, leading the news. But going forward, we’re going to go back to our basics of despite the fact that we can’t control rates, like Joel said, we’re going to give you strategies to no matter what’s going on in the rate world how you can continue to evolve your business. So that’s what we’re all about here. And Joel is we’re so grateful to have him be part of the show. Thank you for

Joel Schaub 27:30
that. No, I appreciate it a lot. If I’m an agent right now, before we go, there’s a lot to be positive about coming up this summer and fall, as those rates are a little bit higher buyers are going to have some opportunities. And it’s actually a really great thing to have some of the fineness in terms of the offers that are coming in. So lead with value. Be genuine, educate yourself, right. Make sure that you’re the person they’re going to and just stay positive. We’re here for you know, we’re really happy to be on the show again, DJ, thank you so much.

D.J. Paris 28:03
All right. Thanks, Joe. And we will see everybody on the next episode. So thank you so much. See you next time.

Welcome to another episode of Coaching Moments With Ryan D’Aprile from D’Aprile Properties!

In this episode Ryan discusses his firm’s competitive advantage in the market where he operates. Ryan and D.J. discuss what’s going on currently on the news and the state of the economy at the moment. Next, Ryan shares how he’s advising his agents on how to deal with upset clients due to the raise in the mortgage rates and also how he advises his agents to keep their emotional intelligence intact and be motivated in this very demanding market. Last, Ryan and D.J. discuss the importance of connecting with your network.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Ryan D’Aprile can be reached at 312.590.6416 and [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
What do you say to your buyers when there’s little inventory and also rising interest rates? We’ll be discussing that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast can buy real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. Today is our monthly coaching moments with Ryan de April. Let me tell you a little bit more about Ryan, if you’re new to our show. If you’re not familiar with Ryan, he comes on every single month and gives our listeners and our viewers a coaching moment and a coaching lesson. And the reason why is right April is a coach. He’s also a progressive thought leader focused on providing for his agents and staff at deepwell properties. His strengths are his motivational skills, his coaching style and his dedication to training. And he has 14 offices throughout Chicagoland also, he has offices in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida on April properties focuses on high customer service, managing and executing their agents, marketing and transaction management for them, so that agents can stay focused on their business. I’m gonna say that again, because that was a mouthful, managing and executing their agents marketing and transaction management, the marketing piece in particular I love because so few firms actually do marketing for their agents. But if you’d like to take your career to the next level, or if you’re just not getting the attention you need from your firm, please check out D APR properties, visit D APR properties.com. That’s da p r i l e properties.com. Also the link in our show notes. Welcome once again, Ryan.

Ryan D’Aprile 2:54
Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me, TJ, how are you?

D.J. Paris 2:57
I’m good. I’m good. Can we just really, before we get into today, can you just talk about spend a minute or two on the really, I think your firm’s competitive advantage, which of course, you guys are an amazing company. But I think the thing you do that I don’t know any other firm that actually does is this idea of automating some of the marketing and the and the sort of stay in touch stuff with somebody sphere of influence. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I just think that’s so cool.

Ryan D’Aprile 3:27
Sure, yeah. You know, so there’s a place for everybody, right. And there’s a bunch of different types of companies, a bunch of different types of models. You know, and as we’ve gone, and we’ve grown our organization over the past 11 years, you know, one of the things that I had, you know, a lesson I had to reteach myself over and over again, is, is focus on what you have stopped looking over your shoulder and looking at everybody else. And, you know, this interesting in this industry is so interesting, because there’s so much comparison going on all the time. And there’s so many people, actually businesses, companies that are fighting so hard to be number one and market share, and to be the biggest and, and, and whatnot. And our philosophy is, you know, we just want to be the best for the agents that are in our company. And, you know, people who feel comfortable in their own skin, you know, with the organization that they’re at, and we focus holistically on each agent, one agent at a time. We do know that 80% or more of everybody’s business comes from their network, either directly or indirectly. So

D.J. Paris 4:40
you guys have the data by the way, you have data to back that up. But isn’t it that’s actually true for you is 80% I think that’s worth repeating to our listeners, who again, I know this isn’t a new number that you’ve never heard before, but it’s an important number to remember is that 80% of your business will come from your existing net worth network. Sorry.

Ryan D’Aprile 4:59
Yeah, and so you know, there are a lot of tools out there, we have the tools, and every other company has the tools out there. A lot of companies position themselves as they got the technology for you to do the marketing, ours is we have the technology, but we also have the salaried employees that we trained to actually do it for you. So you don’t have to dabble around. Now, there’s some people that are, that really want to micromanage the processes themselves. And they do, they can do it with us or anywhere, we’re just the kind of organization like, let’s just take that off your plate, let’s handle the transaction management for you, let’s do the basic monthly marketing for you, you stay focused on your network and being in flow with your network. That’s, that’s kind of that’s, that’s one of our main value propositions, in addition to continually having events and when I see events, educational events, at the offices, on marketing, on how to network properly on, on and trans management on, you know, team building, if that’s what you want to do, right, there’ll be more of an individual one on one type of process on accountability. And so it’s, you know, we are not the largest real estate company out there, nor will ever be, and it’s not what we’re striving to do, we’re, we’re just kind of focused on to be that the company for the agent that’s at our office, that’s with us. That’s, that’s really, you know, break it down it, you know, it’s, I was, I think I mentioned to you on another podcast, you know, working with an agent, and marketing a big, multi, you know, double digit Million Dollar Listing, and and dialoguing with her, I’m like, Listen, you could be a one man real estate company, or the largest real estate brokerage in the world. And the reality is, once that listing hits the MLS, it’s on every single website across the country, right across the world across the world. And, you know, the real value is emotional intelligence, and the management of the process, the real value to the agent is, how do you get that business? And is it marketing? Or is it consistent, repetitive marketing coupled with, you know, making those individuals in your network feel like the center of the universe, you’re the one making them feel like that, so that when that certain percentage, which is 60%, every year? transacts. You’re the one that they’re coming to? That’s that’s what we focus on.

D.J. Paris 7:33
Yeah, I, I didn’t mean to derail us, but I just think I’m somebody who recruits realtors. And I will tell you, recruiting agents from your firm has never been successful in all the years I’ve not that we specifically go after your agents, but but we really well, and your recruiters, I’m sure come after. Yeah, I know. It’s everyone’s recruiting everybody.

Ryan D’Aprile 7:57
Yeah, exactly. It is.

D.J. Paris 8:01
But I will say that your office is is really interesting, because the idea that you do actually do mailers, email campaigns, you know, basically the, the repetitive consistent things that agents oftentimes just maybe don’t have time for aren’t particularly skilled at, I just think is such again, I, when I was when I started, we had zero agents we have, I don’t know, almost 800 now, and I’m not saying that to brag, because who cares? But the only reason I’m saying it is I’ve seen agents come over from every just about every other firm, at least here in the Chicago area. And I’ve not ever talked to somebody who said, Oh, yeah, you know, my old firm did all of that that for me. And I think that’s a really, really impressive value add and the coaching of course, I know that that’s probably the most valuable thing you do. But I also know that every firm says they do as they do coaching so I know that doesn’t know like a big deal. Yeah,

Ryan D’Aprile 8:55
look, I’ve got you know, 11 years in business and now we’re starting to start to really see the boomerangs come back. The ones that did get pulled away in this track and yeah, it is it is it is nice to hear them say I didn’t realize how much easier it was here. And you know, you leave people are like well, I think it’d be easier because they got this technology got this I got that and you realize well shit, they got it but I’m the one who’s got to do it. I’m like yes, we all have it. It’s all at our fingertips. I just want to have one of our salaried employees do it for you consistently and then and more than that, it goes beyond that. And it’s just in to each their own you know and whatever works best for anybody I have always had the philosophy is focus on the people you have. I am shocked you know I don’t know I am surprised and how we have these standards right and work that’s right you know of course we have to protect the consumer and and then I solicitations and everything else but how just how brutal the recruiting all the release is going on and it’s it’s so much noise in it. You I really feel like it affects the production of the agent more than anything else and takes her eyes off the ball. You know, just got to wherever you are, he’s gonna figure out is this mine? Is this my tribe, and this is my home and die. You know, I always try to tell our agents is, this company might be doing that, and we’re not going to, and don’t worry about it. Otherwise, we’re living to be that other company. And that’s not who we are. We’re living to be us. And so, you know, yeah, I got in the business because I wanted to be home for breakfast with my daughters. I wanted to be home after work, I wanted to trap I didn’t want to travel for work, I wanted to coach their teams and be around and I wanted to sell real estate, so I could be with my family. And that is true, too. Today, you know, I don’t want to be the next social media star I don’t want and that’s fine. If you do I’m not not gonna just, it’s not who I am. Right? I don’t want, you know, I’m not the real estate brokerage, you know, that’s going to have a party all the time. Afterwards, I look after, you know, after four o’clock, it’s like my days done. And I’m gonna go back, like, you know, like I was telling you earlier, I’m a big personality, but I’m an introvert. You know, I, I like my space after a while. And, you know, I got into our business, because I liked the freedom, I liked the flexibility. I think sometimes we get into the business, we lose our way and also become somebody that we weren’t, and we weren’t planning on. But if there’s so much outside influence that can mold us. Three years goes by, and also you’re somebody that you didn’t plan on being when you got out of the business.

D.J. Paris 11:38
Yeah. Yeah. And you have maybe not as much time as as you’d like. Because you’re, you’re, you know, you haven’t learned how to set appropriate boundaries yet. And I

Ryan D’Aprile 11:49
and I tell people to is like, really think hard when you talk about teams. You know, why do you want to have a team, I see individuals, I know who they are, or different organizations, I know what I know, at the core, you know, what their values are and what they want. And they think that a team and a team is great. If you do it, right. But they think a team is going to get in there as like, you’re looking at three times the amount of work that you’re doing right now as an individual agent. Yeah, you know, and there’s a way that you can partner up, but not the team, and that we could talk for hours about that.

D.J. Paris 12:24
Well, I will say one thing about teams, because I know teams are one of the biggest sort of buzzwords of agents, you know, right now, in the last several years in particular is like teams, teams, teams, teams are better than individuals, we’re constantly hearing that message. And there’s obviously an argument to be made that teams are stronger, in theory, to individuals. But what I’ve noticed, and it’s not about, I’m only referencing people who want to join a team versus who want to start a team. But people who want to join a team, because I talked to a lot of agents who are newly licensed. And that is almost exclusively one of their requirements, or something they’re looking for is I want to join a team. And I say, if you want to join a team to learn from a top producer, and really just become almost like an apprentice, like I think, Boy, what a great, great, great thing to do. If you’re going to a team because you’re afraid you won’t generate enough leads, and the team is going to help you build your business. I always say that might not be always the best reason to join a team if you’re going to learn, great if you’re going because it’s going to solve a problem of I don’t have enough business. Well, that’s where Ryan would love to say, actually, you probably have a bunch of business you don’t know about in your existing network.

Ryan D’Aprile 13:36
Yeah, we have a structured mentor program to help with that. I think teams are pushed and they’re pushed by our industry. And I and I truly feel that they’re pushed by our industry, especially leadership in our industry, because these companies have just eroded who they are. And there’s next to no profit in real estate brokerages these days, next to none. And and the leaders of all these individual corporations are causing this and teams are their outlet to give them the resources to manage people because they financially can’t afford it. You seen a lot in the multi tiered multi level marketing. It started in the multi level marketing type of real estate brokerages because they mean that team leader is essentially all of a sudden as a quasi managing broker, acting as a managing broker, what a typical manager broker does and typical trainer does. And the burden gets shifts off the brokerage to that lucky, quote unquote lucky team leader. And so I think that’s why you see it across the industry because the leadership in the past 20 years of our industries, I feel have done a great job of just running the ship, the nose of the ship of our industry into the ground, and it’s been a Race to Zero. I mean, just, it’s all up now. There’s publicly traded companies, you see what the numbers look like, you know, and it’s it’s all over the place and that’s why in my philosophy That’s why I think teams are so relevant nowadays. And I think it’s because the brokers just just don’t have the resources to provide what they definitely need because the business has been eroded.

D.J. Paris 15:12
Yeah, managing brokers now have to do so much that anything that can help take some of the, you know, their workload off, like training and support team via Taenia. Teams. Yeah.

Ryan D’Aprile 15:25
Yep. Team. Team team team. Yep. Tim, Tim, Tim. That’s how they that’s how they scale leverage. And so just as a real estate and open, especially if you’re gonna be a team leader. Yeah, well, let’s,

D.J. Paris 15:36
let’s talk about what’s going on currently in the news, because I always think it’s important for realtors to know what their clients are seeing what they’re reading, and then having some sort of response so that it gives them a talking point gives them a reason to pick up the phone. And right now, we know the Fed raised rates, biggest rate increase in quite some time, I forget how many years over nine or 11 years or something. But whatever it was, they raised that I think 50 basis points and half a percent. And so we’re seeing, you know, mortgage rates now in the fives. And the news organizations are capitalizing on this news, because if it bleeds, it leads. So there’s fun, negative sort of articles to write about this and how everyone’s freaking out the market tumbled today. And I don’t know if it’s still down, but it was down 1000 points. Mostly. And funnily enough, we had a jobs report come out today where our unemployment is almost at a record low in their country history. And we just added 428,000 new jobs, I think. And yet the market still reacted, mostly, I think, to some of these interest rate, sort of news, people are freaking out, which of course, buyers now that means buyers are reading this and freaking out. And we’re also in a low inventory environment in most markets in the country. So there’s not a whole lot of inventory rates are rising. So people’s purchasing power is has come down. So I’m just curious what your what you’re talking to your agents about? Or, you know, let’s talk about Well,

Ryan D’Aprile 17:08
I was Yeah, well, actually, I was just on the news on NBC five the other day, about talking about this exact topic. So and here’s what I told, Mike sous chefs key, I believe, I hope I’m saying his name incorrectly. Um, you know, interest rates are rising clearly. And I think they’re going to reach probably eight and a half percent by the end of the year, in my opinion. Wow. Yep. That’s just an opinion. You know, they say about opinions. But yeah, I really do. I think they’re going to be there. And I think I think they have to go there. I think the the government of the Fed is doing what they can to slow down the economy, and I think there’s not gonna be any soft landing, I think they’re gonna slam on the brakes. And I think we’re gonna go into recession. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But I, you know, inflation is completely out of control. And, you know, the market is reacting to a number of things. And, and I don’t think it’s just the rise in interest rates, I think there’s a lot of flight to value right now, there. I mean, like, I don’t know, if you saw on Apple TV, we crashed, they lost $4.4 billion $4.4 billion last year. There are so many, quote unquote, tech companies, because we work so they were a tech company, they’re not a tech company. They’re, you know, shared office space environment. Yeah. And, you know, everybody, all these investment bankers backing these quote, unquote, companies become unicorns, you know, and what’s happening is there’s a flight to quality in in commodities. And these companies that have lost hundreds of millions and billions of dollars for the past decade have never made money. They’re the ones that are gonna have a real hurting, that’s coming their way. I feel, and I think it’s gonna be very similar to 2020 crash, and Warren Buffett was calling it back then I think he’s been calling it back now. It’s like, how can these companies work for this long and lose billions of dollars in cash? It’s, it’s, it’s mind boggling. And then people relate say, well, it’s Amazon. Well, it’s not Amazon, you know, these organizations, you know, and it’s even in our own industry. And it just, it makes you scratch your head. And I think there’s a lot of just poor fundamentals out there that it just the pendulum is going to come back to the center and as to, but I, you know, I think for us, as real estate agents, all that set aside, is people who are going to buy and sell regardless of rates. And, you know, put that to the side and, and you have to speak with your buyers and you have to speak with your sellers, and you have to ask them the most important question. Why are you buying and selling if you understand that, that’s going to be more important than logic. It’s going to be more important than logic. We all make our decisions based on emotion. And people get married people get divorced people have children, people upsize, people die. And there’s reasons for people to move on to the next chapters of their lives and we just have to accept it. And regardless of rate, they’re going to make that move. I mean, the price point might be different. But the move is going to happen. And if you understand at the core, what and why your client assuming that what why your client is moving, then you’re going to be able to best help them navigate the market and give them life advice as a friend, and help them walk through the process of this transition is what? And that’s what we do. So, yeah, I think rate rates are going to continually increase inventory starting to come on, I think we are leaving our quote unquote, real estate recession, which we’ve been in for four or five months, I think we’ll be coming into a real recession for the economy. But when that happens, I think the inventory is going to open up even more and transactions occur more, which is good for us as real estate agents, mortgage lenders, it’s a different story. You know, there’s a lot of lenders in the past two years that were doing 50 $60 million in volume, and learn to live at that lifestyle, when in reality, they might have been more of a $50 million producer because of those zero rates, environment that we were in for two years, never my life and and the President had companies 63 years old, he said never in his career, has he ever seen a refinance market, like we saw in 2021. If you’re a lender, and you don’t have purchased business, you’re not in the business anymore. And that’s just what it is. And it’s, it’s really kind of sad, see, there’s you know, in our industry, there’s layoffs going everywhere in the mortgage lending business. And, and only the best that and when I say the best, those who have real estate agent relationships are going to survive, quite honestly, and it’s not going to change for a few years, then there’ll be another refinance, boom, because you’re gonna go from 8%, down to seven, and maybe five, and whatever happens, right, I’m just giving us, you know, fake numbers here, just to, to make an extra point here,

I’m not seeing those specific rates, but you know, you will have those, you know, that, you know, that refinance market will come back again, but, you know, buckle up and buckle up, not in a bad way, just, you know, it’s an expression, it’s like, the the rates are rising, educate your consumer, very educate your buyer, understand that, three months from now, the rates gonna be higher than it is today, your purchasing power is going to be less. So you may want to consider settling, and getting in which you can now and it because if you want to move now, for a particular life reason, make the move. And sorry, my the lines ringing, I’m calling him from the phone here. Because rates will just continue to go up because they have to just slow down this inflation that we’re having. And there’s some serious inflation we’re having right now.

D.J. Paris 22:49
Yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. It’s crazy, brutal, it’s brutal. It’s yeah, and but for let’s think about, like a specific case, example. So let’s say I have a client, and we rate locked them three or four months ago, at at a lower rate than than what exists today for their lending, you know, percentage, and then now that has expired, because, you know, we couldn’t find inventory, or we couldn’t find the right property. So I know this is happening to a lot of agents. So all of a sudden, now, that rate needs to be reran. The purchasing power might might have come down almost certainly it has. So there’s, there’s there is a little bit of a loss there to the consumer, or at least in their mind, there’s a perceived loss of like, Oh, I really wanted the $700,000 home now I’m maybe I’m limited more towards $500,000 or $600,000 properties, which, again, doesn’t feel good as a first response to a consumer. So what what would you say to an agent to help sort of, you know, Coach that, that buyer through that, and so they don’t, you know, give up or, you know, get too upset about it?

Ryan D’Aprile 23:58
I mean, yeah, I mean, the best ways is to really, you know, and it’s, I really think this is the Achilles heels for most real estate agents, they don’t truly understand why their buyers buying, you know, and they give me very simple surface answers while they want a bigger home. What does that mean? That’s not you got to really dig in deeper, because if you understand that, you’re going to be able to help somebody navigate through that adjustment of hey, you could find a four to 700,000 home now it’s a $500,000 home. Now, again, why are you buying and maybe now you shouldn’t buy? Maybe it was an upgrade for you. Right? Maybe it was an upgrade for you. Maybe that’s why you were buying or maybe it’s a different school district and you have to and there’s reasons why you have to be in that school district. So guess what, now you got to settle and it’s not a big deal, and it’s not going to change. And again, the affordability is gonna go down and so you got to every what I love so much about this business is how unique it is. and very much how unscalable it can be as well, because each individual customer has a different scenario, and you got to give them your time and your effort, and you got to understand who they are. And then you can consult with them on the process. So, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, and I don’t want to apply logic to an either it’s more emotional, right? You know, it truly is. And they those those logical, hey, you know, it was gonna cost you $1,500 cost you 1900. But look, you can have a tax write off, you can have this and that. It glazes over them. You know what I mean? It really does. It’s, it just this is, this is what it is, it is what it is. And for any of us who are buying in the next 12 months, the rates are only going up period. They’re only going to go up. Now the good thing is is more inventory is going to come on, when the market, the economy slows down, even more. Inventory is going to come on. Yeah, and I just think I think you just got to take it day by day. And don’t let too much of this. consume you.

D.J. Paris 26:10
And I think you can also mention, too, if somebody is if a client if a buyer is struggling with this, no, oh, gosh, I have this perceived purchasing power decrease that feels bad. You can also talk to them about how inflated pricing has been. And maybe that $700,000 home that you could have afforded three months ago, if we had could find one was actually not worth maybe it was only worth 500. And as we start to see rates going up, and again, more inventory, which means low, you know, pricing comes down a bit. Maybe it all works out, you know, for exactly the same sort of property that you thought you could afford. But you really were overpaying anyway.

Ryan D’Aprile 26:53
Yeah, I don’t know about that. I mean, I think so. I mean, there’s obviously it’s a possibility. I don’t I don’t see a huge correction in prices. I see. Maybe he clearly I see eventually, you know, the multiple offers coming to a slow and then you know, people paying 95% of asking price versus 110% of asking price. I mean, it’s been a shitshow out there, to say the least. I don’t see. I see the market correction, quite honestly, mostly in the markets, not the housing market. I think the housing markets pretty healthy. With the lending, you know, regulation that was put in place and how healthy people are. I think what we have is a a grossly I think very similar to what happened on housing markets going on to the equities markets. And these companies that have lost billions of dollars that really have no right have even been in business. And you know, my question is, whose money is it? Don’t tell me it’s JP Morgan’s money or, or investment banker by that’s, that’s, that’s got to be somebody’s pension fund money. There’s got to be some police fund teacher fund, that’s got to be some, you know, Pipe Fitter pension money that’s sitting in is getting invested in these companies that, you know, you tally it up, you know, one company lost maybe $10 billion over the course of five years. That’s one company, you know, that I wonder, is that going to take its toll on our economy? I think that I think it’s gonna be equities. But who am I?

D.J. Paris 28:25
Well, let’s so we talked about maybe how to counsel the customer who maybe feels they see these new stories, they’re freaking out no inventory, raising rates. So we talked about Yeah, the emotional intelligence of the realtor to be able to counsel the client. I’m also interested in I and I only deal with realtors, I don’t deal with with consumers, like you’re sort of same way you teach, you know, you’re coaching and teaching and talking to agents. But agents are also I find, even even ones that that seemingly are usually pretty bulletproof to some of this news. I’m even seeing that sort of little bit of mild depression kicking in with realtors who are like, Ah, how do I keep going when there’s no inventory and rates keep rising and my clients just can’t find so what are you what are you talking to your agents about to keep them motivated? Keep them sort of in a positive mind frame as they navigate these choppy waters.

Ryan D’Aprile 29:23
Sure, it’s real easy one, okay, as a real estate agent and a loan officer, which are basically you eat what you kill, okay? You need to go into the office every day. You’ve got to go to work. If you want to succeed, you have to go to work. That’s it. And so many people I have seen you know, all you know, I I’m running an errand, I’m selling some furniture, I got a dentist appointment or something like that. I mean, there’s so many excuses. I became a real estate agent at the age of 28 years old 29 and from 22 to 29 or 21 to 29. I went to an office every day for to six years old, I still go to my office every single day, unless I’m taking a day off. Me too.

D.J. Paris 30:04
I have I have, I would love to be able to say that I work just as effectively from home and I can work from home, I don’t have to be here. I do not work. Well, from home. I wish I did. Because it gives me another option. The reality of it is I’m just more effective in the office. And I suspect most people are would, if they’re honest, would say the same thing.

Ryan D’Aprile 30:24
It is and everybody listen to this podcast, please understand the failure rate is 90% or higher in real estate 90% or higher. And because it’s a solopreneur, ship type business, and it’s very difficult, you got to find a tribe, you got to find a community, you need to find an accountability group, the office is the best way to get out of the house one to focus on what brings you business. What brings you businesses, your network. And so if we all look at it, 80% it’s just across the board. If 80% of your business comes from your network, then why aren’t you spending 80% of your time on your network? Get off social media, get off the MLS, get off the errands, and and all the other stuff? I understand there’s a transaction management part of the business that we have to do. But I’d be surprised if, if if I mean, if it was more than 10% of our industry spent more than an hour and a half on their network. Once a week, I really think it’s that small. And those are the ones saying state.

D.J. Paris 31:23
I was at a top producer breakfast recently. And one of they asked a similar question to what I just asked you is how do you stay motivated? And, you know, it’s certainly not the easiest time to be a realtor or me if you’re just if you’re a listing agent. It’s a wonderful time. And if you’re working with buyers, it’s more challenging. And so there was an agent, top producer who does more by side transactions. And they were asking her in this forum I was in, you know, how are you staying motivated? And she’s like, Oh, my gosh, it’s so easy right now. And everyone went, what, how? And she goes, Well, right now I’m contacting every single person I know. And she’s been doing this since December, and saying, hey, you’ve probably heard that for everyone in her Data database, as a home owner, you’ve probably heard prices have have quite gone up quite a bit. Now is a probably a pretty good time to check out to see what we think your home’s worth. And she goes, I just do this all day long. And her thought was I always am asking, How can I provide value to the people who already know me? And she’s like, I just run these reports all day. And I had that eye contact each person individually and say, Hey, I’m going to swing by and drop off this new report. So you get an idea of what’s going on. And I was like, boy, that’s so simple. And it’s brilliant. And it’s valuable to people. So if you’re wondering, well, how do I spend time on my network? I just gave you an idea from a top producer. That pretty good idea. Because every you know, book, people visit Zillow, 200 million Americans visit Zillow every single month, as some of those people are checking to see what their homes worth. And by the way, the Zestimate just as a little aside, because I was just add to Zillow forum, believe it or not, I know people will disagree with this, but a data scientist was speaking to us and he said our Zestimate is now within plus or to plus or minus to 200 basis points. So within 2%, we think we’re accurate. So people are checking this and you know, not that you have to agree with this estimate or not. But we know people are checking this, right. It’s kind of Zillow is main thing. And and so we know they’re checking it. So why not be there? The maybe give them a more accurate version of the Zestimate hand deliver it? And boy, I would love if somebody would do that. For me. I’ve never even run my own report on my own property.

Ryan D’Aprile 33:35
Yeah, how are you going to talk for hours about that? But I do agree. I agree with you about the network and diving into that network. And that’s, you know, that’s the most important thing and I think a lot of us, you know, yeah, I’m just good. My Zestimate is off by $400,000.

D.J. Paris 33:54
To use is not one of the accurate ones. Just went looked at

Ryan D’Aprile 33:59
it right now. So, but anyways, um, but it’s a great tool. It’s a great company. I just, I’m sorry, you got my curiosity. So I googled it, and I went to his estimates, I just go, you know, through my address in there. Um, but you know, I go but my

D.J. Paris 34:15
point, my point by saying that, though, is that’s an easy thing that you can do at any time to give value to your network. That is something that no one else is probably really doing that unless, you know, they’ve worked with realtors before,

Ryan D’Aprile 34:28
right? No, I agree with you. And I guess here’s an ethic. Here’s where we kind of end it. Marketing. Marketing is incredibly important. All right, in advertising, incredibly important. And then ask yourself, am I spending more time marketing and advertising myself than I am connecting with people my network that should not be unbalanced. You should be connecting with people in your network more than you’re in marketing yourself, in my opinion, in our business, in our very unscalable business and you could have three 400 people in your network. You can Make a half a million to a million dollars a year, if you do what I tell you, and spend more time connecting with those individuals than anything else, market and advertisers, of course, but I’ll bet you most people spend more money on advertising and social media marketing, and all this other stuff than actually rolling up the sleeves, digging in and saying, Hey, how are you? I was just thinking about you what’s going on? And then move into the next person.

D.J. Paris 35:27
Yeah, I’ve had my same accountant for I don’t know, however many to 13 years, maybe I’ve never met her in person. Why am I with her? Because I’m too lazy to find someone else. Is she? Maybe? Is she the very best accountant in Chicago? I don’t know. But you know, I am whether because I like her. Like her. I’ve never even met her and I but I like her when she sends me emails. She she’s, you know, I think she’s competent. I haven’t been I haven’t been audited yet. So let’s hope that she’s doing a good job. But the truth is,

Ryan D’Aprile 35:59
all decisions are made professionals are hired by other professionals based on likability. That’s it. And you know, they did a study and they realized that consumers hire real estate agents arbitrarily, it’s in one to three days, it’s very quick. It’s a very quick segment is usually the first person that comes to mind. So your job is to be friends of the people in your network, get it. Sorry about that. My phones blowing up DJ, because I got a three o’clock that it’s coming up on the heart here. So I’m sorry, it’s throwing me off. But that’s the most important thing for you guys to be doing.

D.J. Paris 36:30
Yeah, connect with your kids. Again, check in with people see how they’re doing. What’s going on in your life. Oh, by the way, mother’s days this weekend, what a great opportunity to pick up the phone and call everybody you know, who you know, either is a mother or has a mother and just say, Hey, I was just thinking about you this weekend, hope you’re having a great Mother’s Day or pet parents are also mothers, right? A lot of I know my girlfriend likes to think of herself, I had to get my girlfriend a Mother’s Day card, who because she has a cat. That’s another great thing you can if you should know which one of your clients who you know who have pets, that’s another thing you could do is call up say, hey, Happy Mother’s Day pet parent, or if they have, you know, children, you can do that, too. There’s lots of ways to connect with people. And again, that doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the news, right? We just know it’s the time it’s that time of year where mothers are celebrated. So there’s lots of ways you can deepen those relationships. And I think like you were saying, if you focus on that, I mean, how many realtors are reaching out to everybody they know to wish their their sphere of influence a Happy Mother’s Day, maybe they’ll send an email a blanket email to everyone with a little cute, you know, picture on it that says Happy Mother’s Day. We love mothers. But how many understand

Ryan D’Aprile 37:38
that marketing and advertising? That’s not? That’s not exactly good for you? Yep, exactly.

D.J. Paris 37:43
Yeah, yeah. And so what can you do this weekend, if you’re if you’re not busy, because there aren’t much inventory, call everybody you know, and say, Hey, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day and and see what that does for you, as a business as a business owner, as an individual agent, I’ll bet you, I’ll bet you there’s no negative you will not get one negative response to that. And you might even get a few customers on it. And you can always say, Hey, by the way, if anything changes for you, if you ever want to talk real estate stuff, just let me know. But I just wanted to call on wish you Happy Mother’s Day. You do that you’re gonna you’re gonna have great success. So I’ll let Ryan I know he has to get to his next meeting. But I think we gave a ton of value here in this in this episode. So I want to thank Ryan. Again, Ryan is the guy who runs between office to office to do in person trainings, coaching, you know and meeting with his staff. So he absolutely walks the talk. So if anyone out there is looking for a different firm, especially in the Chicagoland area, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, if you’re looking for a firm, where it’s it’s really, you know, coaching and training led and helping you with your marketing, D APR properties is a great, great option. So check them out, do properties.com Ryan has tons and people that would love to talk to you about what they offer, as well at Ryan has a lending institution Midwest lending, if you’re looking for a new loan officer, you can check with him as well. And then also, they have title and a bunch of other services they offer too. So definitely check out D APR. They have lots of lots of things. They really have a tremendous amount of products and services for their agents. And also we just want to thank Ryan for being on the show. He’s been with us almost since the very beginning comes on every month, and provides tremendous value. So thank you, Ryan. And on behalf of Brian, we want to thank everyone who’s listening has made it to the end of this episode. And we ask that you do just one thing to help us continue our show which is telephoned think one thing about one other real estate professional or if loan officers are listening or anyone that finds value in this content, please tell someone else about it. Let them know about our show and send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com they can sign up to get emailed every time we have a new episode, which I know I do for podcasts I listened to or they can you can just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. So Ryan I will let you jump to your three o’clock. Thank you so much for being on the show once yet again. And we’ll wish we wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day to all though by the time this goes out, it will be after Mother’s Day. But if you’re watching us live right now, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms.

Ryan D’Aprile 40:11
Thank you, JJ, appreciate very much.

D.J. Paris 40:14
All right. Thanks so much, and we’ll see everyone on the next episode. Thanks,

Ryan D’Aprile 40:17
Ryan. All right.