Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

In our November episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties talks about planning for 2022 from an agent’s perspective. She talks about inventory challenge also. Carrie and DJ discuss the importance of analyzing the previous year and bring out the lessons learned and investing in your business. Last, DJ shares his tip for the Holidays.

Also, if you have a challenge, frustration or something funny you’d like to discuss with Carrie and DJ, please share them by sending us a message here.

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.

D.J. Paris 0:00
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Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast native for real estate agents and buy real estate agents. My name is DJ Baris. I am your guide and host through the show and today is our monthly series Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carrie McCormick Real Estate Group with App properties here in Chicago. Now Carrie has been a top 1% producer in Chicago for over 20 years she has this incredible amount of experience helping buyers, sellers and investors. She’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. Now please, everyone visit Carrie at her website, which is Carrie McCormick r e.com. And that’s McCormick with two C’s. So Carrie McCormack r e.com. But also, I want you to follow her on Instagram, she has a truly impressive Instagram account. She’s consistently ranked as one of the best realtor Instagram accounts in the industry. And you can find her at Carey McCormick real estate and we’ll have a link to that, as well as to our website in our podcast show notes. You can always find it there. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 1:58
Thank you. Thank you, I love that introduction. Makes me feel old that I’ve been around forever.

D.J. Paris 2:04
Well, at least you’re a top producer for 20 years. So at least you have a lot of success. And that’s one of the reasons why of course you come on our show. And you’ve actually been with us since the very, very beginning. We are so grateful Carrie has been our oldest and was the oldest she’s she is not the oldest, but but somebody who’s been with the show the longest as one of our regular guests. And we are super grateful, because she is incredibly busy every each and every year and she just does more and more production every every single year. So what would you like to talk about today now that we just finished Thanksgiving? We’re closing in on the end of November. What’s on your mind today?

Carrie McCormick 2:42
Yeah, so as we round out the year just you know, kind of looking back of this crazy year that you know, it doesn’t matter what market you’re you’re in right now, we all have had such an amazing 2021. So we just started now looking ahead and planning for 2022. So I think just to start off the conversation of 2022. I just want to talk about mortgage rates. I am not a mortgage lender. But we all know that the rates I shouldn’t say we know but you know the rates are going to start ticking up. And I have a quote here. It’s from Doug Duncan at Fannie Mae. He says right now we forecast mortgage rates to average 3.3% in 2022. So 3.3%, which is just a little bit higher than 2020 and 2021. But by historical standards, it’s very low. So even though we’re going to start hearing things about mortgage rates ticking up, again, they will but it’s going to be at a very moderate pace. So what does that mean? So of course, we see mortgage rates go up, we’re probably going to see some pricing go up as well. So the affordability factor for homebuyers is going to become front and center. So these are all terms that we’ve been talking about over the last, you know, year is interest rates, pricing, supply and demand, the affordability factor. So again, this is probably going to carry into 2022. And same with home pricing. So in all of our markets, we’ve seen these record breaking levels 1819 20% There’s been some markets that are 40%, which I wish I was licensed in those states. But you know, we’ve all seen these really incredible home appreciation prices. And I think in 2022 we are still going to see pricing escalate, but not as much as we did this past year. So I think it’s going to be important to communicate to our sellers, because right now they’re expecting you know, their pricing just to keep going. But I think again setting the expectation that we will see moderate, slower price increase in 2022. And of course, every market is different. I always say Chicago itself, because I’m here, obviously in Chicago is a market within a market and even some neighborhoods will appreciate a little bit differently than another neighborhood. So from those two points, if you think about mortgage rates, you think about the pricing of the home, you know, what does this all mean to us. So it’s going to be more expensive to own a home, no matter where you’re at. So in 2022, we’re still going to see our inventory challenge as well. And again, I’m tired of talking about inventory challenge, but we’re gonna see it. I am seeing, especially here in Chicago builders, being a little bit more active in the market, which is great, even though their supply chain issues, but we’re seeing more building happening here. So hopefully, it’s going to help continue with our supply issue that we’re having here as well. But I don’t see, I don’t see a slowdown here.

D.J. Paris 6:01
Well, that’s, that’s exciting. And I was thinking as you were talking about the pricing, which cross the country is most markets seem to have benefited from, well, depends on if you’re a buyer or seller, but but for homeowners seeing more appreciation than then maybe they would have expected. But I almost wonder if and I’m curious to get your thoughts. I’m almost wondering for people that were thinking of selling, but going to stay in the same general geographic area. I wonder if a lot of those people didn’t sell, because they have to live somewhere and buy the appreciation of the homes that they and also the competition from because rates being so low, I almost wonder if that prevented a lot of people from moving thinking, well, I could share, I could cash out sell my home, but then I have to buy something that’s appreciated just as much. I almost wonder if maybe, maybe that will, you know, bring those those sellers back into the market. I’m just curious if you saw any, for people that stayed local and didn’t, you know, go down south or wherever they could now work remotely, maybe didn’t feel like they were chained to their geographic area. But I think most of us still feel like our our geographic areas is where we want to be, especially if we have kids. And you know, we are in schools. So I’m just curious if I know like this happened to my sister, she many, many years ago, bought a place a little tiny, 475 square foot one bedroom, not even a studio in, in the West Village in New York. And just a like, amazing, desirable area. She was right in the middle of everything. And her home appreciated within seven years about $150,000, which is just incredible. It was a sixth floor walk up it had no no air conditioning, just just oh my gosh, it just incredible. But when she sold it, she was like, Well, I can no longer live in the West. You know, she made all this money. And then she went out to Queens, because that’s where life sort of took her. But she had priced herself out even though she got a nice and it was perfect cuz she left the area. But I’m just curious, if you think maybe this will the slowdown in the price increases, maybe we’ll get more active sellers who are thinking about staying local?

Carrie McCormick 8:12
Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head, it’s definitely been a challenge with a lot of this, the people that did want to sell is where am I going to go? No, what am I going to buy, you know, they couldn’t find something that they loved. And even if they did find something else that they loved, the price was too high on that. But you know, again, they sell their, their home at a high price, they’re gonna buy at a high price. So some people just, you know, sat on the sidelines, or they decided not to sell. So we definitely saw all different types of situations in 2021. But I do think just as you said, some of those people that were selling, and they held off, I think we’re gonna see them in the market in 2022. And hopefully, again, it’s gonna bring back some inventory, too. So it’ll be an interesting year. But you know, at the end of the year, as we all typically do, I always like to reflect back on the year, you know, what have I learned? What can I improve? And I think it’s important for all of us to do that. And, you know, since I’ve been in the industry for so long, you know, back in when the market crashed in 2008, I learned so much from from that time, you know, and is when things are, you know, either going really bad or really good. You can always take things out of, of those situations. So, this past year 2021 was a phenomenal year. And so I just wanted to share with you a few of my reflections that, you know, I’m going to focus on for 2022 which is to invest back into my business, right and we all do that from a marketing standpoint, but also to invest in the people around around us, and to invest in the staff that’s around us. So like for myself, you know, I’ve got some wonderful admin staff that I adore and help support my business. So you know, it’s gonna be important for me to give back to them and support them. Because they’ve worked hard all year for me. So again, it’s my job to support them and invest in them, and everyone around me. So just to be thankful, and again, support that staff. So that’s number one, investing in your business from an advertising standpoint, so invest in your brand, we’ve seen a lot out there of just, you know, recognizing who you are, as a broker, you know, building a brand, that’s true to you. And that’s something that I’ve worked really hard on, through my advertising, through my social media, and through my video content. So I’m going to definitely focus a little bit more on that this year. Via good listener, I think that is one reason to that I’ve been extremely successful is, as a salesperson, we like to talk a lot, right? We like to be center stage. So I think for me, you know, I can really sit back and listen to people and there’s times I do want to jump in and, you know, give my two cents or, you know, whatever it is, but I think it’s important for all of us to sit back and be a better listener, and be kind and patient to people around us. Right? It’s been, again, a great year, but it’s been a little bit of wonky, with people being short tempered, or, you know, I can use a lot of words, but you know, it was kind of a crazy year, but it’s just being patient and respectful to people around you. I think that’s going to be important going into 2022

D.J. Paris 11:45
Yeah, I’ve always thought of this job, and I’m not out there doing it. So this is just my observation of, of being around a lot of brokers for a lot of years, and I’m a broker as well, but I, I don’t go out and practice, like, like our listeners in like you do. But it seems to be that that I’ve always thought of this as if nothing else, it’s a customer service job. And it’s being being able to, to understand what someone’s stresses and anxieties may be be in the process of buying or selling a home and, and being that that comforting sort of, you know, ear to to absorb all of their their stress, which I can’t imagine is always easy for agents. But But I think you know, that is such an important skill. If you really want to develop a skill, I think not you in particular. But our listeners, of course, is really, really look into the importance of empathy and empathy, meaning that you are sympathy at the very least which sympathy is feeling, feeling for somebody when they are when they’re struggling. And this whole buying and selling process is just a lot of struggle for even the most simple of transactions. And then But then empathy is sort of the next level, which is I’m going to suffer with you, but but I’m also going to be there to comfort you. And to sort of validate someone’s position where they are, I think is it really can’t be overstated. And the best agents I know, you know, really do that quite well. They don’t always have to have the answers. But they certainly have to have the, you know, the open ears to say, tell me what’s going on. And you know, let’s get through it.

Carrie McCormick 13:31
I mean, at the end of the day, we’re all we’re fiduciaries to our clients, right? That’s the most important thing. There’s a lot that comes around with it, like you said, in different situations. And we have to navigate them professionally through the situation. So it’s, you know, be kind, be patient, be a good listener, but you know, most importantly, be a good fiduciary to your clients. And I think we just need to all step back and remember those goals.

D.J. Paris 14:00
I also think too, like the I think the vast majority of the public has no idea that realtors are fiduciaries, I don’t think that’s a that’s a word, that unless you’re maybe a financial adviser, or you’re in the real estate industry, you probably just don’t associate with realtors at all. And it’s really an important conversation I think to have, or it’s an opportunity to say, you know, my primary goal here is is not just to get you everything that you want, although we are going to try to do that, but to do it in a way that’s fiduciary ly responsible. And here’s what that means. And I think even working on that conversation really will separate you from other realtors who maybe don’t even think to use those kinds of words.

Carrie McCormick 14:43
Yeah, I agree. I agree.

D.J. Paris 14:45
And I was curious to what do you think we’re and I know we’re kind of going back a little bit but But thinking back over the last year what were sort of the main reasons, you know, obviously, appreciation will certainly drive this but in low rates. But what were the main reasons that that people that in your experience that people decided to move this year, this last year?

Carrie McCormick 15:06
I know, isn’t it something that it seemed like the whole world wanted to move last year, it was unbelievable. And I did a little bit of research on that. And through my own clientele, you know, and just research. And if you look at Think of a pie chart, it really is kind of split four ways. And the main four reasons that people moved was one, they wanted different home features. So whether it was I don’t even know like, they wanted a pool, or they wanted a fireplace, or they wanted a new kitchen, their needs of their home changed. The second reason was, it didn’t fit their family needs. So whether they had more kids or someone was working, wanted to work out in the house or something. So it was that didn’t meet their family needs. The third one was they wanted to move closer to friends and family, which I thought was a very interesting reason for moving. And I don’t know why I do it, just, you know, I think what the pandemic did for a lot of people was make them feel like they wanted to, you know, be around their loved ones a little bit more, right. So I saw a lot of people moving again, to be closer to their parents or parents want to be closer to their kids, or, you know, whatever the reason, family reasons were, they wanted to be closer to the people that they loved. So there was a big movement of that. And the last one, which was the big one was home office, you know, as though that pandemic pushed everyone back into their home. So it really was those were the main four. And it just it moved. It moved everyone across America, people are going everywhere.

D.J. Paris 16:59
Yeah, it is. It is remarkable. I mean, even I, we were just I was just at the narc, the National Association of Realtors Conference in San Diego, and a couple of weeks ago, and my girlfriend and I were there. And we said, we could live here this is this is pretty nice. As much as I love Chicago, and boy, the weather there is hard to beat. And could I technically do my job there. And I’m gonna I’m not a practicing agent. I’m pretty sure I could, somebody did come in to see me this morning that was interested in joining our firm. And that was maybe three people in a year have come in the rest of all just talk to me on the phone. So I probably could do it remotely. And so really is opened up the freedom. And I think for everyone listening, if you haven’t had these conversations with your sphere of influence, like, hey, has anything changed? Have you guys are you guys thinking about now making a shift now that people have seen the first wave of people, you know, go out and be able to work remotely, I bet there’s a lot of people now the second wave that are like, Oh, this is really doable. And maybe we’ll start looking at some of those other areas of the country that we always thought would be great to live in. And then I think for an agent, that’s a great opportunity to start finding realtors in those areas, or maybe even getting licensed yourself in those areas, but but certainly finding a referral source to say, hey, I have clients that are interested in Nashville, or, you know, wherever it might be.

Carrie McCormick 18:20
Exactly. So I’m excited to talk about what’s coming up for next month. Do you want to tell them?

D.J. Paris 18:28
Yeah, so we have a couple of things. We would love to find out what your biggest frustrations are when dealing with other realtors. So if you have any ideas, and you can tell us your story, or you can ask questions, because we know this is a cooperative business, but it isn’t always and always feel cooperative. And there may be challenges that you’re experiencing, you know, just working with other agents. And Carrie has seen and been through all of it many, many, many, many times. And so we would love to get her opinion on how to help solve some of these problems. I see a lot of this online, on in forums with realtors, where they go, you’re not gonna believe what this realtor just said to me or did to me. And then there’s all sorts of great advice there. We want to sort of do the same thing here. So if you have a challenge, or a story you want to tell or just want to get some help in dealing with other agents, we want to we want to know about that and we want to answer that. So please, a couple of ways you can you can get those questions to us. Number one, you can email them right to us, which I will put the link in the show notes but you’re gonna send it to his actually I’m gonna give you an even easier way. We do have the email in the show notes. But I want you just to go to our website keeping it real pod.com There’s a contact us form, send it there it goes right to zonna our producer and she will send those to us and we will be able to address those. So any challenges that you’re having? Or frustrations with other agents honey, send us some yeah Funny stuff to boy, I, you know, is realtors, I’m sure you deal with stuff all the time, probably daily where you’re just like, wow, that is, and I’m sure can be very frustrating and hard for especially a newer agent to sort of know what to do. You know, there are some bullies out there. And there are some people that, you know, aren’t don’t always play nice. So we want to talk about, you know, whatever challenges you might be having with other agents. And I also have just a quick little tip for for the holidays, right now is the time where you might be thinking about getting your clients a holiday gift. Hanukkah has already started. Christmas, of course, is coming up and other holidays, New Year’s Eve, and then even other religious holidays. But I would say you know, if you’re not going to if you haven’t already put something in place, I say my advice and you can certainly send something is think about maybe sending something in January. That’s like a New Year’s gift. Certainly, there’s a lot fewer of those and it maybe won’t get lost in the December shuffle where everyone’s so busy. And you know, also getting a lot of things in the mail. But I think there’s nothing wrong with sending on New Year New you kind of gift and it doesn’t even have to be an expensive one. But don’t worry too much about a new year Christmas or a holiday gift. Being that you know, you can always send it in January two.

Carrie McCormick 21:20
That’s pretty good.

D.J. Paris 21:22
Yeah, I just I just think you know, there’s ways to do it where you don’t have to worry about, oh, gosh, I just sent out all these gifts. And it’s the middle of December and I haven’t really heard anything. Well, yeah, because people are busy. And they’re going to parties, and they’re dealing with family and they’re buying gifts themselves. And they’re getting a ton of stuff in the mail. And it’s just easy to sort of get lost in the shuffle. But so think about sending a January gift. I mean, no one’s expecting that. And that would be a lot of fun and probably separates you from everyone else. So that’s just my little tip of the day if you’re going to send a gift. Yeah, just just and then you don’t have to worry but you should know which of your you know which of your your sphere of influence are celebrating Kwanzaa or Christmas or Hanukkah, you should know that and if you don’t know it, now’s a great time to find out because even if you don’t send a gift, you could certainly call everyone and say hey, if you’re they’re Jewish, for example, and they’re celebrate Hanukkah. Oh, by the way, I know it’s the second day of Hanukkah, I just wanted to say hope you guys have a great Hanukkah, which it happens to be today. The second I think it’s the second day or the third day. Anyway, the point is, is no this stuff and it gives you a great opportunity to contact your clients and say I hope you just have a good holiday season. And they’re probably not getting a lot of those phone calls, too. So that’s another great reason to reach out. Well anyway, that’s all I got. So please send us your your agent frustrations and send those to us over at keeping it real pod.com our contact form there. Also, I want everybody to follow Carrie on Instagram, which is care at Carey McCormick then again McCormick with two C’s Carrie McCormick real estate. So at Carey McCormick real estate also visit our website Kiri McCormick, r e.com. And if there are any agents out there that have people moving to Chicago, Carrie would love to talk to you about your clients. Or if you’re just a buyer or seller investor and you want to work with a top Realtor in Chicago because you want to you want to you know, find some opportunities here. Carrie is a great resource. And so Carrie, if an agent or an investor or a buyer or seller wants to reach out to you what’s the best way they could find you

Carrie McCormick 23:26
always call me 312961461 To I always have my phone with me.

D.J. Paris 23:34
She does. And she is always responsive, and which is why she is so well respected here in the Chicagoland area. So we want to thank Carrie again. She Gosh, was this a record year for you? Or I know it’s not over yet. But I think you’re right at you’ve got to be almost at the is this like the very best year you’ve ever had? It is it’s a good one. She’s very humble. That is that’s pretty impressive. With with her history, so she’s she is killing it. And she takes time out of her day to help our show. So we appreciate that so much. So thank you, Carrie, on behalf of the listeners and on behalf of Carrie and myself, thank you to all the listeners for continuing to support our show. We’re almost finished up with another year here. And so we say thank you. But please tell a friend. Think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from hearing from great, amazing people like Carrie and send them a link to our show to send them to our website keeping it real pod.com We appreciate it. All right, Carrie. Well, we will see you next month in December and have a great day. Have a great December and end of the year everyone and take some time for yourself. It’s the holiday season and you know it’s a good time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends.

Carrie McCormick 24:41
So absolutely. All right.

D.J. Paris 24:44
All right. Thanks Carrie. Bye bye

Barry Karch from Barry and Tammy Karch in El Paso, Texas talks about what it’s like to be an introverted real estate agent. D.J. and Barry discuss how difficult it is to approach to people and start a conversation. Barry describes how his business has changed since Covid19. Barry also describes the advantages introverted agents have in the real estate business. Next, Barry talks about social media and how introverts can participate. Last, Barry describes how he keeps in touch with his previous clients.

Please check out Barry’s The Real Estate UnSalesPerson Podcast.

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

Barry Karch can be reached at 915-549-4663.

This episode is brought to you by iGuide.

D.J. Paris 0:00
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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 Barry Carter, who is known as the real estate on salesperson and specifically for all of you out there going how come you don’t interview a lot of introverts? Well, today we are interviewing an introvert who has become a very successful realtor. And I think his story will be very inspiring and he’ll provide a lot of insight for all of us that don’t consider ourselves extroverts. I personally think of myself as an introvert. So I love this conversation. So please speak with Barry in just a moment. But before we get to Barry, just a couple of quick reminders. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, how about helping us grow our show by just telling one other agent about us. So think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing this great conversation you’re about to hear from Barry and send them a link to our show. So they can send you can send them right over to our website which is keeping it real pod.com or pull up whatever podcast app they’re using and search for keeping it real hit that subscribe button and also please leave us a review. You know if you’re listening in Apple podcasts or Spotify or Pandora or Gosh, all the other places you can listen to podcasts. leaving us a review helps us know what we’re doing right and how we can improve as well. So we appreciate it. But guys enough about me this is the end of the year. In fact you might even be hearing this in January because we are even super behind. So I don’t know if it’s happy new year yet or happy end of the year. Either way. We’re so glad to have you on listening to our show part of our community and we thank you so on to our interview with Barry March.

Today on the show we have Barry Karcher, who is a podcast host this show is called the real estate on salesperson which we have by the way have a link to in our show notes. He’s also a Top Producing Realtor in El Paso, Texas, but let me tell you a little bit more about Barry. Barry Karcher has always considered himself an unlikely realtor. He’s quiet, introverted and and salesy or maybe that’s the best quality I love on salesy, but he’s really not your prototypical. He does not have the prototypical formula for real estate brokerage success yet. Barry has been a top selling realtor for 36 years which is beyond amazing. He sells as many as 100 homes per year. He’s also the broker owner of a real estate brokerage in El Paso, which is called the real estate powerhouses. He has come to realize that being an introvert in real estate actually gives him many advantages over his more extroverted colleagues. He has created a podcast called The Real Estate on salesperson to encourage and inspire his fellow introverted realtors and has just launched the unsafe salesperson community which you can [email protected] forward slash on salesperson. That link is also in our show notes. His mission is to teach introverts that they have what it takes to succeed in real estate. And before I welcome very I would like to say that we are so grateful to have Barry out not only as a fellow podcast hosts that we can help support each other in that community but also I have been dying to have an introverted realtor or someone who identifies as introverted and wants to talk about it on our show for years now. So we are so grateful to have Barry Barry, welcome to the show.

Barry Karch 4:49
Hi, DJ, thank you for having me. I’m really looking forward to being on your show and I really enjoy it.

D.J. Paris 4:54
Well, I am so glad you have the podcast you have because I think You know, I don’t know what the percentage of introverts are in, in society, at least here in the United States, but it is a significant, not insignificant chunk of people. And a lot of realtors who do identify or do are do classify themselves as introverted, oftentimes do feel lost, because they see agents who are a lot more, you know, extroverted, doing things that they feel that way, I’m not comfortable there. So I’m so glad we’re gonna have this conversation because I have seen many introverted Realtors rise to the very top, like like yourself, you’re in that category, of course. So I would love to go all the way back 36 years, though, because that is quite an accomplished career. Really, truly impressive. And we’d love to know about how you got into real estate and why real estate all those years ago?

Barry Karch 5:50
Good question. And, you know, I’m still asking myself that it was. I was a very unlikely, accidental realtor, I didn’t anticipate ever going into real estate, I never planned to be in real estate. When I went to school, I went to I went after high school, I went to college, because that’s my my parents said, you’ll go to college, it’s what you’re supposed to do. So I went to college at University of Texas at Austin. And I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was a good student, I got A’s pretty much in everything, I was a good student. So the school was not a problem. For me. My strengths were math numbers, I was very detail oriented, which are not feels that Realtors oftentimes are good at times, builders aren’t very detail a number of people. But I was good at that. So I probably would have been better at accounting, engineering, something like that. Sure, it probably is more suited to that. But I didn’t really have a calling when I was in my early 20s. I didn’t really have a passion for anything in particular didn’t know what I wanted to do. And so I went through school. I’m always jealous of the people that know what they want to do early on in life. I wish I was one of those people. I feel the same way. Yeah, I didn’t know. And so my parents were in real estate. And they seem to be doing quite well. Not knowing what to do. I decided I guess I’ll just follow them and go on to real estate too. So I went in there by default, because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. That’s how it all started.

D.J. Paris 7:23
Yeah, well, look, it’s I love the I love the honesty there. And I’m always again, I feel the same way about how I was so jealous of people that knew that at 18 or 19, that, Oh, I’m going to be a doctor. And so they absolutely start down that path. And, you know, I guess eight, eight or 10 years later, they they’ve done it, but I boy, I was the same way. I was like, I don’t really know what I want. And I didn’t really discover marketing, which which is really I didn’t even discover that in college, I had to delete, you know, graduate school and then ended up, you know, found myself in in marketing all those years later. So I definitely appreciate that. And so what I’m curious about is, and so as somebody who talks to newly licensed agents almost daily, in fact, the reason I was a little bit late to our show was I was talking to a broker that’s just about or rather a person who’s about to become a broker in about a week and trying to give her some advice about how to get started and maybe what to look for in a firm. And she also identifies as introverted. So it’s just a coincidence that I had this conversation just before our, our conversation here. And I think that introverts, it’s, it can be very scary, thinking, Well, gosh, I see so much extroverted activity by other realtors. I’m curious and how you got started and how you prospected because that’s traditionally thought of as an extroverted activity, I’m going to proactively reach out to people I know or meet new people. Not that introverts can’t do those things. But that often becomes energy draining, you know, certain types of those activities for introverts. So I’m curious on how you got started, what worked for you? And I imagine that might even be different from what somebody who was identifies as an extrovert said how they got started.

Barry Karch 9:15
Right, right. Well, I’ll tell you what I did at the beginning. But bear in mind, I started in the stone age, because it remember it was 36 years ago. So the world was completely different. Back then there was no social media. There was no Internet, there were no mobile phones. I mean, it was a different world when I started in the business. So back in those days, we would, we would take floor time in the office when calls came in. I would follow up on leads when I first joined the business. My father who had been in business for a while he gave me a stack of old leads, like from months and months ago, people he never had time to follow up with he’s like Hear, call these people. So that’s what I did at the very beginning. And like you said, making phone calls isn’t my idea of a lot of fun, it’s not my favorite thing to do in the world. But on the other hand, I also want to be successful, and I do enjoy eating. So I guess I, the, the fear of calls was over overtaken by the fear of not being successful not having food on the table. So I just forced myself to go ahead and make some phone calls or reach out to people, I wasn’t going to let it limit me or stop me from doing what I knew I needed to do to be successful. So I reached out to a bunch of people made phone calls. And in doing it, I found out that most people were pretty friendly, when you call them, they’re pretty nice, it wasn’t so bad. And once you get going, you kind of get on a little roll, and it’s a little easier. The first call is the hardest, and then it gets a little easier and easier. So I just kind of overcame my fears of it and just forced myself to do it. So that’s how I started out way back when

D.J. Paris 11:11
I when I started in. I started in financial services in about 2001. And that was also even though the internet certainly existed and was used by most people, the telephone was still a very viable way to reach people that you didn’t know, cold calls. You know, this was right after some of the do not call stuff went into effect. But but it was still doable. And it may be it’s still doable now. It’s just I think harder making sure you’re calling people that are you know, that you’re allowed to call. But, but I had the same sort of experience and I think of myself probably is more extroverted than introverted. Although I have some introverted qualities, maybe all of us have have a little bit of both, but but certainly I lean more on the extroverted side. And I remember, they gave me they gave me a phone book, really. And it was a, it was a little bit more than a phone book. But that’s essentially what it was. And they said, Here you go make 200 dials a day. And this was for being a financial advisor. And I found the same thing, I would have people that, you know, weren’t interested. But I rarely ever got yelled at. And I thought, even as somebody who’s extroverted, it was hard for me to pick up the phone. Every morning, I had to have a little talk with myself. And then after, like you said, after the first few calls, you’re like, oh, it’s not so scary. And I’m not so sure that that that that works in in 2021, as it did when you started and and when I started in a different industry. But it was a good way to get over that fear. I was glad for that experience. Because it told me oh, I can I can make a random phone call to somebody I don’t know and not not be completely immobilized by the fear there were in the past I would have been.

Barry Karch 13:04
Right, right. And also I did a similar thing. I remember back in the day, we had what was called a criss cross directory.

D.J. Paris 13:13
That’s Yes, we had ours was called the Hanes. Hanes was the company that made the one. Yeah, they were called the criss cross. So they were giant, massive, intimidating books full of phone numbers.

Barry Karch 13:27
Yeah, I would do that for like an hour every morning to start the day calling around neighbors around listings or around homes that were sold to see if they wanted any help also, so yeah, not not my favorite thing to do. But I did it, I’d force myself to do it. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 13:44
think it’s a good skill to have. And whenever I talk to somebody who is says, you know, I think I’m going to try calling expired listings or for sale by owner listings, which for everyone listening, there’s a lot of services online that will sell you that data on a daily basis. Those, those are difficult phone calls. Because those are people that are either upset with a realtor, possibly for not having a home sell, or they’re just people that don’t want that or choosing not to work with a realtor. So they can be difficult phone calls. But I encourage people to try it not because I think it works so well. Because I probably doesn’t work that well anymore. But it’s great experience of just learning how to pick up the phone and sort of get your way through that fear. Because I think that same sort of courage to pick up the phone and do that also comes into play during an open house. I think I think that’s courageous to go up to somebody who walks in and say, Hey, I’d love to tell you I mean, I don’t think that’s easy either.

Barry Karch 14:45
Go out of my strength, not one of my strengths. I was never good at an open house. So that’s something I did as little as possible. I was I was not very good at coming up to strangers and creating a good conversation with them.

D.J. Paris 14:57
Yeah, it’s tricky too, because I really do Believe it’s like when you go into any sort of store where they’re salespeople retail establishment, and I’m a pretty extroverted guy, but mostly I just want to be left alone. So even, I’m very polite to people who come up to me. But rarely, I always applaud people that just come up when I go into, you know, Banana Republic, let’s say, and they go, Hey, can I help you? And was like, No, I’m just browsing. But, but I always see that as, as as a good skill to have. And I think picking up the phone and calling, you know, even even neighbors of listings, which I think is such a great idea. And I think I’m curious if you still do that today. So if you get a listing, and it closes, are you contacting, still making those kinds of cold calls to the neighbors nearby saying, Hey, by the way, I, I help so and so? Or do you not do that anymore? Do you do it a different way?

Barry Karch 15:51
I stopped doing that years ago, really, when the do not call lists came out? I was like, Yes, that was my excuse to do this anymore. Because most people were on that list. So I stopped doing it pretty much about that time.

D.J. Paris 16:04
Yeah, it’s like it’s a good rule of thumb. If you had to guess, does this person want these kinds of calls? And then they might even think they’re on the Deunan call? And they might not be? And then you look like a jerk? Because they thought they were on there. And it’s not your fault. But yeah. So I’m just curious. So fast forwarding all the way. Oh, I would love to know at what point you started your own brokerage, how long into your career before you you decided to go off on your own.

Barry Karch 16:31
I started 10 years ago. So I was already in the business about 2025 26 years when I started my own company. But I started 10 years ago, and at that time, we, I had a vision of I didn’t use the office very much as always out of the office on appointments. Being an introvert, I guess maybe I didn’t like being in the office around people so much. Because I had a lot of interruptions all the time. So sure, I prefer to work at home by myself. You know, that’s a real introvert thing to do, right? So I’ll just you’re sitting in my home and my computer, doing my research there and then going out to the appointment and coming back home. So I thought 10 years ago, you know what we could do? We could do away to the office and become a virtual company. And 10 years ago, we were kind of on the early part of that trend. Yeah, you guys were pioneers. Yeah. Now, it’s not as big a deal. But 10 years ago, it was very unusual that we created a virtual company 10 years ago, for that reason how you

D.J. Paris 17:29
were really ahead of the curve, it’s and I’ll tell you, just with respect to where I work, we have a just under 800 agents here, we have two physical offices and 99% of our brokers never come in. And in fact, that’s not strictly because of COVID. I’m even pre COVID Nobody can ever came in and we, you know, our agents can use the office 24/7 will give them access anytime they want to. Yeah, nobody does. And I think what’s great, too, one of the things that’s happened, which I thought I’d be curious to get your opinion on, which is, you know, during COVID, of course, I think a lot of us in, you know, became familiar with doing, you know, online meetings, zoom in particular, and then there’s lots of different versions of that technology. But I think that, you know, even people who are retired or probably jumped on a Zoom meeting during that time with their family, or maybe a FaceTime thing. But but certainly I think we just got conditioned now to we all sort of go, oh, online meetings are really easy and doable. And we’re sort of used to it and, and I think that I’m curious on, you know, your take on as an introvert, I imagine that that was very welcomed for you because you can enabled people to be more use to not having face to face not that you don’t want to have face to face, I’m sure you do. But it’s nice that you don’t always have to anymore. I always thought real estate is all belly to belly and eye to eye and, and maybe a lot of it is but but I think it’s becoming a lot more virtual. Not just even the fact that you know, the offices is isn’t as virtual but I’m curious if that if the client experience for you has changed, or your processes have changed since COVID. We’re now we’re all conditioned to just doing doing things virtually.

Barry Karch 19:26
Oh, yeah, I love zoom. I started meeting buyers for the first time I do my initial introduction and meeting and get to know them on Zoom rather than meeting them in person. So that’s great. And also for the company. I started doing our sales meetings on Zoom and I haven’t stopped it since then. Because even before COVID Allah as people were grumbling Oh, I have to drive to the office or so much. I mean not the office but where we had the meeting. And there was so much traffic, you know now zooms easier or they can do it at their home. And we can have the meeting. So I do a lot of meetings on Zoom now. And yeah, it definitely suits my style very well.

D.J. Paris 20:07
I’m curious, too, if you’ve had any buyers in particular, who are open to you doing virtual showings, where maybe you’re at the property or one of your agents is there, you know, who’s on either a zoom or FaceTime, or some sort of conferencing video software, where, you know, they’re like, hey, you know, and they walk around, has Have you started to see, you know, are you able to do those? Have you started? Curious if that’s been working for you, or if you’ve tried that yet?

Barry Karch 20:38
I’ve done that for a long time. Actually, I’ve done that before. COVID, even for lovers and years. The reason is not that I didn’t want to show people homes in person, but a lot of my clientele were military. And they did not get a house hunting trip into town. So they bought they wanted to have a home ready when they moved to El Paso. So we would walk through a bunch of homes via zoom or FaceTime or, or Skype or something. And we would tour homes that way, and they would pick a home and buy it. But I’ve done that for years. So that really wasn’t a change. Yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 21:08
amazing. It’s just, I’m just so glad our audience can hear that these sort of things are possible and not out of out of range. But I would love to talk about it as opposed to thinking of introverts as as being disadvantaged. Because I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I just think there’s probably more extroverted realtors. So it’s easy to think, oh, that might actually not be a strength to be introverted, and to try to grow a real estate practice. Obviously, you’re proof that it has it isn’t a challenge, or rather, it isn’t debilitating challenge. And I’ve had lots of introverts actually on our show who say, Oh my gosh, I love being an introverted realtor. But for those of our audience who maybe feels, you know, gosh, I don’t know how to incorporate my introverted this into my business. I’m curious on, you know, what advantages you think introverts have?

Barry Karch 22:01
Oh, sure. There’s a lot of advantages. And I tell you what, looking back on my career, I believe whatever success I’ve achieved has come from being an introvert. That has really been the main advantage that has enabled to set me apart. And before I go into the van, just real quickly, let me just mention that there are a lot of introverted realtors, I’ve come to find. And I’ve also come to find that the majority of the top realtors are introverts, which you might not expect, but they they are. And so advantages are many. But it all starts with being quieter, and not pushy when you meet a client. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like pushy salespeople. I don’t think most people do. You go into a store looking at a car or something, you don’t want someone coming up to you and trying to push you into vice versa lay. Yeah. So I think consumers oftentimes fear that when they meet a realtor, they’re going to be pushy, also an aggressive and they’re, they’re going to have to try to fend them off. So when I first meet clients, they see that I’m quite a bit different. I’m quieter, I’m soft spoken. I listen a lot more than I talk. I’m not super talkative. So I listen to them, I find out what they want. It’s all about them. And I think we let people talk more, it makes them feel important, first of all, and it makes them feel appreciated. And it makes them feel understood. And they just start to feel comfortable working with me, because I’m not trying to sell them a house, I’m not pushing them into one. I’m not trying to be aggressive. So they start feeling comfortable with me, they open up more tell me what they really like and don’t like. And I kind of morph into more than advisor role than a salesperson role. And it’s just, it’s a great way to build up the trust. And it just has really worked, they find that I’m different and than they expected and we hit it off real well and has led to some good long term relations with past clients too.

D.J. Paris 24:12
Yeah, I I appreciate you mentioning that. And I think too, that like attracts like, right and and I think that, you know, certainly being extroverted there are people that that enjoy a more forward sort of presentations type of broker who who does sort of give the song and dance routine. However, I think the vast majority of us don’t prefer sales people as you said, we prefer consultants we all want the consultant experience that makes us feel important. And what is a consultant do they go into to you know, a individual or business and they say, tell me about what what you want or what your problems are. And then let me come back to you with some ideas after that and they come back. And I think that that is essentially sort of how you describe a bit of your process, although I overly simplified it. But this idea of listening, I mean, this is Dale Carnegie 101. Right? The this is, you know, get interested in people learn about them, talk less, listen more, I think that is I once interviewed a woman, very early on in the show, who is one of the top Realtors in here in Chicago. And I said, tell me how what your process is when you work with a client. And she said that with buyers in particular, she sits them down in her office. And she goes, usually the meetings last about an hour or more, because I just asked them probably 100 Questions about I want to know exactly what they want. And and then I say, Okay, give me some time to come up with some ideas and come come back to you. And and I, again, it seems so obvious to top producers that that is everyone’s process, and it isn’t. So I think you’re right, I think this idea of listening is obviously a skill that introverts have in droves. And that is such an important skill, because you’re right, it makes people feel comfortable. And it also makes them feel important, like you said, but Oh, wow, someone’s listening to me, right?

Barry Karch 26:18
Yeah, right. So like, networking, for example, or in big group settings, I’m not good at all, I’m not going to make many connections. But real estate is not networking, it’s a one on one business. It’s just the realtor and the client in front of them. And introverts can be excellent and making those deep one on one connections. And extroverts can be much better at working in a room and meeting a whole bunch of people. But going deep with one person, introverts can be very good at that. So that that’s another one of the big advantages.

D.J. Paris 26:51
I think you’re right that top producers tend to be more introverted, I would be really curious if National Association of REALTORS ever does a study where they just interview agents and ask them how they identify and what their production is. I would be very curious to see what percentage are introverts? Because I think you’re right. And I think that the reason why agents become so successful is this is a referral based business. And I think the extroverted activities, although can be certainly credibly successful. But I think the idea of building strong, deep relationships with people one on one is is obviously what introverts tend to prefer energy wise. And that is, hopefully I imagine has led to a lot of referrals. I imagine a good chunk of your business is referral based, if not all of it. I imagine.

Unknown Speaker 27:44
The majority of my business nowadays is referral based, right? I’ve I mean, I’ve probably had in the last month or two about 10 listings all from past clients. So which is great. I love it. And I love when they go way, way back. I had one earlier this year, that was my furthest back client that ever came back to me to sell. It was like 32 years ago, she bought the house. And then she contacted me to resell and I, I’ve got one house now it’s coming on the market they bought from me 20 years ago. So I have people that go way back. Because I mean, we develop a good relationship, and I stay in touch with them. Which, again, probably another strength of introverts is following up following through. We tend to be more detail oriented, perhaps, and do more research, but we’re good at following up with people and being organized.

D.J. Paris 28:32
Yes, following up with people might be, in my opinion, the strongest client skill once you get clients to have and obviously, there’s probably nothing more important than follow up especially even after a sale right? That’s that’s when a lot of times follow up stops for agents and remembering trying to remember Oh, boy, I built a really strong relationship with this person, I would should probably keep it going. I’m curious to ask you about social media, which is, I think oftentimes misunderstood as an extroverted exclusive activity, where I’m I’m showcasing my life. Certainly people have different boundaries around what they’re willing to share personally or privately with the public. What what part of their private life they’re willing to share, if any, I’m curious on how social media works for someone like yourself, is that a big part of your business? Is it is it something you don’t participate in? So I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.

Barry Karch 29:31
I do very little social media. I get almost none of my business from social media. I’m not a big fan of it. I put things out there from time to time, but very little and I go through phases. Sometimes I enjoy it. And I’m in a phase right now where I’m not doing it so much. But that’s never been a very big part of my business. And I

D.J. Paris 29:52
think that’s important for our audience to hear because they’re likely hearing from a lot of different sources. You have have to be on social, that’s where you end up, you know, developing relationships. And I like the fact that that’s not been your path. And it doesn’t, maybe it doesn’t play to your strengths, or it’s something you don’t enjoy. And it’s nice to where you can say, hey, I’m, I’m still a top producer, and I don’t really participate much on social and it doesn’t seem to have affected your business. Because I think, you know, the relationships you’ve built with people are the very most important part of how to build a business. So I’m curious on what other strengths, you know, you mentioned, being detail oriented and being sort of number oriented, which, you know, being good with, with with figures, isn’t necessarily an introverted trait, although it certainly could be, but just being be able to focus on those type of activities. I’m curious how that sort of set you apart maybe from other agents, who aren’t as strong in that way.

Barry Karch 30:57
I Well, the the follow up is one of the most important things like you said. And also keeping calm under pressure. Let me give you the follow up first. I, early in my career, I heard a study that after within six months of after you close on the house, most buyers cannot remember the name of the realtor, or even the company they work for. So yeah, they’re gonna they’re gonna forget you immediately if you don’t keep in touch with them. So I always look at it like, my, my communication with them just starts at the closing. So I’m very, I’ll stay in periodic regular contact with them for years and years and years and years after closing and never stops. So I’m very detailed that way, and very good on the follow up. So that helps. And they don’t mind me

D.J. Paris 31:49
asking, I just want to pause for a second because I want to just drill down just a slight slight bit on that, because you just said something very important. Which is, you know, once the home closes, that’s really the beginning of my communication, or at least the follow up communication. How do you stay in touch? Are you making? Are we doing phone calls? Is it emails at texting? Is it anything on social? You know, what are the strategies? Is it mailers? You know, what are you doing to to periodically reach those people that are already in the past of clients?

Barry Karch 32:20
Okay, well, a few different things. I want I want to a real estate convention years ago, and Brian Buffini was a speaker there. Yeah. And he was talking about, he gave out a tape back in the day afterwards of, you know, what he recommended doing and I heard him talk about doing pop buys where you stopped by a client’s house and drop off a little gift. And I was thinking to myself, I wish I thought of that. I don’t know why I never thought that myself, but I can see myself doing that. So I started doing it. I started just popping by past clients this house periodically and dropping off a gift. And they were so surprised to see me at first. Because usually when the sale is over, they think that’s the last they’re gonna ever hear of their realtor. But I would stop by and I would give them various different things throughout the year. But my favorite thing always was the Girl Scout cookies, because you can buy a box of cookies for four bucks. And what else can you give somebody for $4 that they’re going to love. I mean, everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, everyone Yeah, $4 you can make them so happy and that is so much cheaper advertising than anything you can spend anywhere else on Zillow or anywhere else you want to talk about spend four bucks on the people that supported you and they give you referrals and repeat business. So I would pop by their house year after year after year. And like the home I just listed that I mentioned that I sold the home 20 years ago, they’ve got two sons in high school now that weren’t even born when they bought the home. And when I came over to the house, the parish introduced me and said this is the guy that’s been dropping off the bills got cookies for us and so the kids all loved me but I came over and so I do pop buys and I’ll I follow it up with personal notes because people never get handwritten notes in the mail. No right Oh,

D.J. Paris 34:10
boy, I just want to pause for a second personal notes and this is this is straight out of the blue Feeny play the Buffini playbook so I love I love this Popeyes and personal notes, handwriting notes. You know if I get an outside of birthday anniversary, you know the the December holidays outside of the major holidays, which I get very few handwritten notes. Anyway, during those I get no handwritten notes outside of that.

Barry Karch 34:36
Right? Hardly anybody ever gets a handwritten note? You just get junk mail, maybe bills in the mail. But if you ever get a handwritten notes me the first thing you open like Oh, who wrote me What is this about? So I love the handwritten notes because it makes you stand out from the crowd. And then the third thing I do as as Brian Buffini says is I make phone calls to my past clients and I know a lot of realtors, extroverts as well as introverts. They dread picking up the phone and calling their past clients. Like they think what do I say to them? You know, but I find that it’s very easy. I mean, there’s there’s nothing fancy, you just call them up and say, Hey, how are you doing? Just was thinking about you and want to see how you’re enjoying your house? That’s it. That’s all Yeah. Yeah, and they appreciate it because again, they think they can’t believe you remember them. And so that’s all it takes, and just keep in touch them periodically, and, and your business will flourish. From there.

D.J. Paris 35:28
It’s it’s 100% could not agree more. And you know, for everyone thinking in look, I believe it’s scary to to pick up a phone and call a past client. And even especially if you haven’t been contacting that client for several years, right. And you think, oh, boy, now I’m embarrassed. I think, you know, personally, I think, you know, you could always, if you feel that way, you could always call them and say hey, I just wanted to apologize, I have not done a great job of staying in touch. But I my goal this year is to make sure that I stay in touch with my, my clients, you were so good to me. And by the way, just wanted to check in see how everything’s going or, you know, as you mentioned that it could be that simple. How’s the home? How is everything going? But you could also ask to like, you know, how, how, how is the you know, how is maybe not asking so much about the pandemic, but hey, is your work situation changed? Are you working from home these days, you could just find out what’s going on in their life. And or call them on their anniversary of buying the home say, hey, five years ago, you bought this home? I don’t know if you remember it, it was this day. But I wanted to call and say Hey, happy five year anniversary. And it doesn’t have to be scary.

Barry Karch 36:38
Yeah, exactly. Those are great ideas. And you’re gonna find that they love hearing from you, they would be so impressed that you remember them and think about them, and it makes them feel special. So again,

D.J. Paris 36:48
most of the time, you’re probably going to get the voicemail anyways. Yeah, so you can always watch it, which is even in some ways easier, because then you can just leave that exact same message. It’s like, Hey, I was thinking about you. I hope you’re doing well. And just even this demonstration that I care, I care about you. I imagine you’re not somebody that asks for business. Although I certainly don’t know.

Barry Karch 37:13
No, I asked him if they might know anybody. I never asked him directly for business. But I say Do you know do you know anybody else that is thinking about buying or selling a house, and after a while become so conditioned to thinking about sending you referrals? That you get

D.J. Paris 37:25
them? Yeah, I love that. One other advantages? Do you think like, I’m curious, do you think introverts or somebody like yourself, who’s who’s very number focused? I imagine that gives you a competitive advantage when it comes to running CMAs. And just assessing value. You You’re a numbers guy, and I’m curious on how you think that translates into, you know, better servicing your clients?

Barry Karch 37:53
Yeah, great question. You know, we introverts don’t like to wing it, we’d like to be very well prepared and organized before the appointment. So I’ll do my research before listing appointment, have information with me. And when I come over to the house, if they talked to a realtor before so often I hear you were so much more prepared or has so much more information than the last realtor I talked to. So yeah, I’ll have a thorough CMA, I’ll have all kinds of data for them. And it impresses them on on my knowledge of the market. So that definitely is a big help. And that’s certainly another one of the big advantages.

D.J. Paris 38:30
And anyone just to sort of give not not an example myself, but like I identify more as an extrovert. However, I prefer working with introverts, because I don’t want to be sold. Either I want somebody that’s like, Hey, I’ve done a bunch of work here. And I want to I want you to digest it and review it, and I’ll help you understand it. But I would much prefer that versus somebody who’s fun and nice and and not that you’re not fun in nice as well, but somebody who, who that becomes really their presentation about how how you know, how they act, you know, and more of that deeper, emotional sort of thing. I think that that I much prefer I don’t like a lot of that. I like somebody that says, hey, here’s a bunch of work I did, and take a look at it, and then let’s discuss it. So I think that introverts don’t even necessarily have to only work with introverts Of course. So I imagine that makes you very valuable. Coming in and and, you know, I know also realtors who show up with a blank, blank pad of paper, and they’re they wing it and somehow it works for them. I’m, I’m not sure how, but some people are maybe better at presenting themselves off the cuff, but I certainly wouldn’t show up unprepared.

Barry Karch 39:47
No, I wouldn’t either. But like you said there’s all different styles and real estate and all different ways you can succeed there’s there’s more than one path up the mountain. So different ways to do it for different people.

D.J. Paris 39:58
Totally and And that’s what’s great about there’s great real estate coaching, as well. And now with the advent of podcasts and video streaming is, it’s so easy to find other realtors who in your podcast is a great example. And for everyone listening again, please look up the real estate on salesperson podcast. So easiest way to find that you just go to the real estate on salesperson.com. Or just pull up a podcast app search for real estate on salesperson hit that subscribe button. But tell us a little bit about the I before we get to your show. I want to just really quickly ask you, how did you last and not only last but thrive over the last three decades, which is really difficult. This is a hard industry. It’s a tough job. Tough career, but you have obviously done very, very well. And I’m curious if you have any suggestions for audience about you know, staying power? You know, maybe when it’s not so much fun? How do you keep going?

Barry Karch 40:57
Yeah, well, you have to constantly evolve, the business and the world are always changing. So what works today may not work tomorrow. So you always have to be looking at where where the world is going where the industry is going to stay abreast of it and try new things. I always always try to add a new marketing technique to the my mix every year, and test it out and see what works because looking back. My number one source of leads is probably changed about five, six times throughout my career where my business comes from. So I know people now who are in business 30 years ago, and they have not kept up with the times whatsoever. They do things like they did 30 years ago, they don’t know how to do electronic signatures or, or anything on the internet. And they’re really like dinosaurs now. But you have to you have to keep up with the times and, and evolve and always try new things out.

D.J. Paris 41:52
Yeah, and the good news is there’s no shortage of tools out there. I was just at the NAR conference, and it was in the Expo Hall. And there were several 100 vendors there. Most of them tech companies, or at least it seemed like most of them were, were those types of companies. There’s just so many tools out there. And and I think you can get sort of, you know, swallowed up and in the rabbit hole of real estate tech. But if you’re not at least keeping abreast of it and understanding, you know what efficiencies exist? Like, you know, I’m shocked whenever I talk to an agent who comes from a brokerage, where they’re not using electronic signature, I’m like, wow, you know, we started using that, like 10 years ago, and we weren’t I didn’t think we were at the forefront of that. But I guess maybe we were one of the early adopters. But But yeah, there’s really great technology that can assist, especially with things like reminding you to call somebody on their home anniversary and CRMs can do that. But I’m curious if you have any other tips for I would like to ask actually about getting started. So if you were getting started today, and you have brokers at your firm, and I imagine you probably have new brokers from time to time, how are you? What are you telling them to do to get started, especially if they’re on the introverted side?

Barry Karch 43:05
Okay. First of all, I would tell them to look for their sphere of influence, if they have one if they’re if they’re been in the city for a while. And let’s let them know that you’re in the business but in an unsafe busy manner, we’re not going to call him up and hit him over the head and say, Hey, do you have business? Or do you need you need to buy or sell a home in real estate now, I would simply drop them off a gift, or even play businesses that you frequents restaurants, hair salons, beauty parlors, wherever you go that your vet’s office, your doctor, drop off a little gift, a box of Girl Scout cookies, your box or something and say, hey, just want you know, let you know I’m now in real estate. If you know anyone else looking to buy or sell a home, please let me know. So just an easy way to get a non threatening way to get the word out. So that’s a good way to do it. And I would just let people know that have the confidence you can be yourself, you don’t have to try to be like, fit a certain mold or be like you’re not, and you can do it. But I always start with that sphere of influence. Number one, I think that’s the best way to go. If you have it. If you’re new to town, then that’s going to be a little bit different story. But you still probably know some people use some services, and you can start there. And

D.J. Paris 44:26
also just the idea of having patience and understanding that your sphere is ready when they’re ready. And all you really have to do although it’s not just as simple as I’m sure you would agree but is making sure they know that that’s what you do. And that you’re doing it going that extra mile and you know, maybe dropping off the $4 box of boy what I just realized the return on investment. You know, even if you even if you visited 100 homes, you know and spent 400 bucks, which obviously when you get started You might not necessarily have that, but if you do You have that? I would be shocked if you didn’t get one sale out of that. Probably get a lot more than that.

Barry Karch 45:06
And boy, is that cheap compared to what you could spend somewhere else to try to get business.

D.J. Paris 45:11
Yeah, it really does it I’ve always felt to like whatever the gift is, I mean, a handwritten note is essentially free. Well, maybe it’s $1 altogether. And, you know, boy, just to make somebody Cheer up, cheer them up a little bit with a little gift with the $4 box of Thin Mints. Or, you know, the, I forgot I forgot what the Girl Scout mint cookies are called. Min she got it? Yeah, 10 minutes or Samoas or whatever, you know, or just a $1 handwritten note that says, Hey, I was thinking about you. I hope you’re doing okay. Especially like right now you could still send out, you know, Hey, I didn’t you know, I’m curious on hope everything is going well for you. I know. It’s been a troubled couple of difficult couple of years. But hopefully you and your family are good. I was just thinking about you guys. That’s that’s an amazing handwritten note that probably no one else is doing. No, people would love getting it. Sure. And I and we’re running really low on time here. So and I apologize for that I could talk to Barry all day. But Barry, before we wrap up, please tell us about the podcast.

Barry Karch 46:14
Okay, so I created the podcast, the real estate on salesperson, just to encourage and inspire other people that you can be successful in real estate. Even if you don’t think you’re salesy or maybe not a prototypical salesperson, or an introvert, actually, you have the tools to be super successful. So I created to encourage people that they can do it, they can do it without having to be outgoing or extroverted.

D.J. Paris 46:41
And you also interview guests, you have guests on your show and you discuss, just tell us about some of those conversations. What what do you what’s the primary discussion,

Barry Karch 46:50
right? Okay, I have a solo show on Monday. And then I do guess every Thursday, and my guess will be most of the time there are introverted Realtors talking about how they do it, how they overcame their challenges, and where they get their business from and how it works for them. And from time to time I’ll people outside the real estate field but somewhat related to it. I have someone coming up in a couple of weeks, who is a personal trainer who so it’s not real estate, but I you have to be in good physical shape to give your best real estate. So no question. He’s talking about how you can stay in shape to do real estate, just five easy, quick steps you can take to get in good physical condition. So I have a related speaker sometimes, too.

D.J. Paris 47:41
I love that. And I think that that really inspires me to think about a little bit outside of the box of just interviewing top producers like yourself to think about other parts of wellness, and certainly physical health is one. So everyone who’s listening, please, please give, give us give a chance and listen to Barry’s podcast, which is the real estate on salesperson you can find that by visiting the real estate on salesperson.com. We’ll be promoting it as well. It’s also in our show notes here or just pull up a podcast app, look search for real estate and salesperson and and hit that subscribe button. And listen. It’s an amazing service various providing very similar in his mission to our podcast. So consider him a colleague. And we’re really honored to have Barry on the show today. And by the way, if you’re a realtor in the El Paso area, and and you would like to learn more about Barry and his company, obviously you can reach out to Barry as well. If you’re in the El Paso area, you probably know about Barry. But we’ll have a link to to his information as well in the show notes. But feel free to reach out to him. And also if you think you might be a great guest for Barry’s podcast reach out to him as well, again, the real estate on salesperson.com. I’m very I’m really, really happy to have you I’m sorry, our time is coming to a close. But I definitely want to talk to you about even possibly having you on more regularly to tackle these type of issues. Because I think there’s so much we we could we could go over. So I think this is as Barry was saying with his clients. The end of this podcast might hopefully be the beginning of other things that we can do together. So I’m really excited to continue that conversation. But we really appreciate your time today. On behalf of our audience, we want to say thank you for giving us an hour of your time which I know is not in short supply because of how successful and busy you are running a brokerage and of course working with clients and doing a podcast so I know how hard that is. So thank you on behalf of our clients and on behalf of Barry and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to listen and support our show. Again, please support Barry show. Go ahead and subscribe. And also subscribe to our show. If you’re not already a subscriber. Go on to whatever podcast If you use search for keeping it real, there’s a few other keeping it real podcasts which was not smart of me when I or maybe they started after I started years ago but but either way, look for the one that has the word DJ in it, which is being hit that subscribe button or just go to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve done, you can stream right from the website. And lastly, tell a friend think of one other realtor. If you have an introverted realtor, by the way, it’s somebody you should also recommend Barry’s podcast. So think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this great interview with Barry or who would be a great person to listen to Barry show and send them links to our our show we really would appreciate it’s how we grow. And we really appreciate Barry your time. So thank you so much. And we look forward to seeing everyone on the next episode. Thank you, Barry.

Barry Karch 50:48
Thank you DJ, it was a pleasure and you got a great show. I really enjoy it.

D.J. Paris 50:52
Thank you. Well, I am super excited to check out your show because I I wish I would have come up with the idea first that you you beat me to it and likely would have done a better doing a better job with it. of talking to introverts and talking about different ways. So anyway, Barry, thank you so much. We will see everyone on the next episode.

Welcome to our monthly feature, Social Bootcamp With Gogo Bethke!

In this episode, Gogo discusses how to become part of different groups that will be your way into building relationships. Next Gogo gives tips on how to use these groups to receive referrals from. Last, Gogo and DJ discuss being part local community groups and how to leverage from them.

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

Gogo Bethke can be reached at [email protected] and at her Instagram account.

For more information on Gogo’s Agent Attraction Bootcamp, click here!

Purchase Gogo’s Bootcamp by clicking here – Keeping It Real Podcast listeners get a discount!

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by gogos bootcamp Are you a real estate agent looking for the very best media training program on the planet? Gogo Beth key is considered the top Instagram Realtor in the country. And her step by step training program will take your social media game to the next level, keeping it real listeners receive a special discount. So please visit Gogo podcast.com That’s Gee oh gee Oh podcast.com for your special discount, and now on with the show.

Welcome to Real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. Today on our show, we have our monthly series called Social bootcamp with gogo Beth key. Let me tell you about gogo gogo came to the United States in 2003. To build her American dream, she was broke, she had no real estate experience and no sphere of influence barely spoke English, only $6 to her name. So that left her with really nothing else but Facebook to help build her business, which is where she started. Now she created gogos real estate and began her real estate career. And with the power of social media Google has sold over well, this is an old number, so you’ll have to correct me but it’s at least 75 million, it’s probably much much much higher than that in real estate transactions, and she shares the good, the bad and the ugly of real estate and our honest snippets into her daily life have earned her 10s of 1000s of social media followers. And in the real estate community, she has earned the nickname The Queen of social media. After being asked to present at various conferences and events with a realtor. She built her own social media Bootcamp for realtors called Go Go’s bootcamp. Today, she has a team of almost 600 agents nationwide, probably even more than that now. Her goal is to help as many agents as possible make a name for themselves in real estate utilizing social media. Now if she can do it, this girl from Transylvania, Romania with no formal US education, no sphere of influence, no money, no experience and an accent than anyone else can do it as well. Please, please follow gogo on Instagram. She is the queen of social media. So follow her on Instagram at gogos real estate and that’s there’s a link to that in our show notes. Also, please consider investing in her bootcamp. It’s the very best program we’ve ever seen for realtors to learn social media mastery. And it’s it’s it’s incredible. It’s an amazing investment. And she has a special pricing for all of our keeping it real listeners and viewers. So all you have to do is go to a browser and type in gogo, podcast.com. That’s Gogo. podcast.com Learn about her social media bootcamp. Trust me just go and buy it. It’s the very best thing. Everybody could use more social media skills, and it’s the very best program we’ve ever found. Gogo. Welcome to the show. Once again.

Gogo Bethke 3:03
Well, thank you so much for having me. I will correct you since you told me to please. You are going on 679 to Egypt today. Unbelievable. Almost 700. We did the math by the end of the year or team gogo, the overall organization, we are close to closing $1 billion this year.

D.J. Paris 3:22
On believable Wow. When I started with when he started coming on the show. It was you were just under 100 million. And now you’re at a billion in one year. Oh my gosh. Unbelievable. By the way.

Gogo Bethke 3:33
Oh, that’s right. That’s our like family of agents. But we pulled the numbers.

D.J. Paris 3:38
And and you also built all of your agent sort of business through social media as well.

Gogo Bethke 3:44
Yeah, I certainly have now they have access to all of my trainings, right. And they come to all of the weekly trainings as well, and the boot camp and all that and some do more social media and others, but they’re implementing more as we go. And many of them I would say probably 75% of them are very good already.

D.J. Paris 4:00
Well, I, I am super impressed. I have to also say, a little shout out to ourselves on the podcast, because yesterday, we hit our largest Daily Download number in our entire history. And so it’s very exciting to see your numbers skyrocket. And also our podcast is doing well which I’m very

Gogo Bethke 4:18
I wonder is that because I started sharing it in my stories with a swipe. You know,

D.J. Paris 4:22
I was just about to say that gogo started sharing this more vigorously. And I have definitely seeing those numbers increase, especially your specific episode numbers. And by the way, everyone listening, I really encourage you to do this. The the information that gogo provides is really timeless. It’s not really specific to you know, certain time of the year, although sometimes we do that, but 99% of what we talk about can be implemented at any time. So if you go to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com You scroll down to the bottom, I’ve actually separated out all of the different categories of episodes and you can literally go to all the Go Go social media bootcamp episodes. I was right in a row. And I really encourage you to go back through because every single one is just chock full of great information. But anyway, let’s, um, congratulations on all your success, by the way that is really encouraging to you guys. It

Unknown Speaker 5:11
is so exciting. It is it is

D.J. Paris 5:13
fun. All right. So I know we’re gonna talk about something, which I think is super exciting today, which is really building a network of agents, and sort of communicating with them via social media. So let’s, let’s talk about that.

Gogo Bethke 5:28
So this, this started with, ESP asked me a couple of weeks ago to take over their Instagram. So I had a couple of our agency while a few of our agents here locally, and we were celebrating, so we did a little screenshot. And as a little story sharing, I should say, of how the year has been here. And as they were talking how they double their production with triple their income. And they’re saying that one of our agents had 26 referrals from our different groups and 70 pending in a month. So then that took me to this week’s training and the timbre of organization and we talked about referrals, and how are the best ways to kind of do it, where you can just go boom, boom, boom, have systems around it. So I figured it would be a good idea to kind of talk about that, where agents if they are not doing at least a third of their business from referrals, right, and they’re not doing you’re right, in my opinion, you should be receiving referrals, no matter where you’re located. And let’s talk about that. Give some tips on that.

D.J. Paris 6:22
Yeah, let’s do that. So first, let’s talk about sort of what these groups are. Or, you know, what, how people can start to think about it, maybe?

Gogo Bethke 6:32
Yeah, so the way I want you to look, look at it, right, like start at home, I’m sure the brokerage you are with or the team that you’re with, or the group that you’re with, right? They have their own Facebook group, I would assume so. Right? So definitely want to be a part of that. Now, you might have, you know, with our brokerage, it’s a little different, how we are structured, but if your brokerage, where you’re at, you might have like that next level up, right, like maybe another group of the same brokerage in another state. Right, you definitely want to belong in that group, because guess what, they probably have to refer someone to Michigan and then Guess who’s gonna take the lead here, right? So you want to join as many that is tied to your brokerage right as you can, then you want to go outside of your brokerage, right. And you want to join that livings. Like I’m a part of Livingston County, realtors group, right, there’s a different name in there, but it’s Livingston County’s area that I mostly cover. So in that Livingston County group, there was REMAX or century 21, there’s color bands, or you name it, everybody’s in the right, you definitely want to join that. And then you want to take it one step further. And you want to create your own group, your own support group. So maybe if you go to nor if you go to any like real estate events, right, if you go to your brokerages, real estate events, I’m sure that you have made friends in the industry, that might be in different states, right? They don’t cover your area, and you don’t want them in your area. Because when you want to take referral, they’re not going to refer you if they’re in your area. Does that make sense? Do you want to build your own referral group that are anywhere but your area? Right? And then you want them to also join all of these different groups? So like labcoat agents, right? It’s a huge organization for realtors, 1000s and 1000s, probably hundreds of 1000s of Agents around? I don’t know. So which means a lot of referrals go through that group, right? You want to get a chunk of that. So what you want to do create your own referral group, right? So part of it that 1020 30 agents nationwide. And this is what you’re going to do you guys all going to belong to the same groups. So when a lead calm and you and you start your own Facebook group for that support group, okay, then you’re going to all belong to all of these other Facebook groups. Let’s say a lead comes up in your neck of the woods, Brighton, Michigan. Okay. You are going to because if you do this, right, we have 700 agents now in a team global organization, I can’t possibly remember where everybody’s located. It’s just impossible, right? What area cover? I don’t know, never been in Delaware? I don’t know, right. But what we do instead, you want to be a part of those groups. When you see a referral that is in your neck of the woods, you’re going to first of all comment, you’re going to say oh my gosh, I would love the opportunity. You’re going to call the age and you’re going to video chat age, you’re going to tax deed, you’re going to email them, you’re going to hit them from every angle, right? I strongly recommend for you to take the time and send them a quick little video introduction, right? Because this is on Facebook. So there’s a Facebook profile, push them up, push the Message button and leave a video. Hey, Jessica, I just saw that you’re looking for an agent in Brighton, Michigan. Let me introduce myself. I’m gonna go back, Kay. I’ve been in the industry since 2011. I will include a link so you can check us out your five star reviews on Google and blah, blah, blah, I would love to earn the opportunity. What can I do? Right? How can I grow your business? Right? You’re going to send that now you’re going to screenshot that message that Jessica posted that she’s looking for an agent in Brighton, Michigan. You’re going to take that screenshot. You’re going to put it in your support group and you’re going to ask those 3040 50 agents. Hey, guys, I really need your help. Now all 340 50 of I’m going to come over to that post right because they are in the same group. They’re a member of the same group. They are going to go find Jessica’s post and they are all going to recommend gogo What do you think are the chances instead of just us saying I would love to take the job and sending a video and all that which is already more than an average agent would do, right? Sure. But what do you think are your chances if within five minutes you have 40 agents recommending you,

D.J. Paris 10:09
that’s huge. And I want to slow that down. And just back that up a minute, because I want to make sure people didn’t miss that. And that’s the critical component that you probably wouldn’t think to do is to ask the people in your group to help, because they’re already you’re going to have them join all your groups too. And they’re going to do basically a little fluffing, they’re going to, they’re going to go into there and say, Hey, by the way, you should, you know, hopefully, you should check out gogo she’s, she’d be a great referral source for this particular I reminds me of there used to be a thing called when I was a writer, a blogger used to be thing called Share groups. So we would do this with with blogging, so you’d write an article, you’d say, Hey, everybody, I want you to comment on social media, the post I have for this article, and like it, and then promote it with your friends. And we would all do it for each other. And it would increase engagement, and just social proof and all of that. So it’s kind of kind of a similar thing, but you’re going directly

Gogo Bethke 11:00
to right, so you make your posts, and then you share the posts into that group. And then everybody comes over likes and comments, you can definitely do it for that as well. But you definitely want to do it for referrals. The only way this works if you don’t have agents from the same area in that group. Right. So you have any again, from California, one from Delaware, one from South Dakota, North Dakota County, Florida, Michigan, Idaho, you know, all of the states, you have a business partner referring partner from all of the states. And then when an Iowa comes up, and the Iowa agent screenshots, it takes it to the group, and all of you guys gonna go recommend her right. But this only works if you all do, right, you cannot take and not give because you would in my group, you would be booted. So if I recommend you to three times, but it’s my turn, and I don’t see your name popping up recommending me you will be booted from

D.J. Paris 11:44
it, you can also do you can make it a dual purpose group, it could be a referral group, of course. And it can also be a social media Comment and Share group as well. So every day, you know, you might not have referrals, so you might not have anything to post, you could say, Hey, guys, we only have two rules here. Anytime you make a Facebook post, I want you to post it here, or link to it here. And we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna comment, we’re gonna like it. So we’re all going to support each other. And we’re also anytime referrals come in, we’re going to do the thing you just mentioned. So I mean, that’s a very powerful thing. If you can do both of those things. I mean, it’s huge. And all you have to do is tell people anytime you post something on on Facebook, or wherever it could be another platform, Instagram, whatever, you know, here’s the here’s the thing, go in there, comment like

Gogo Bethke 12:28
some of our agents take it one step further. And they leave video messages to the referring agent. So for example, John and one of our team. This just happened in one of our team Google agents. So somebody was looking for an agent in Traverse City, Michigan, one of our team Google members is Mike savage. He’s a top top top producer out there. And he commented there, yes, I would love to take the opportunity, yada, yada, right. But then he posted it into Team goggles. So then all of us went in there and recommended him but so Taro took it one step further. And Sotero left a video message to the person who posted the lead and recommended Mike how Mike is the absolute best how he has been industry forever. Guess who got the job?

D.J. Paris 13:08
Right. And guess who’s going to get a lead back if if he gets that deal, which sounds like he’s going Mike’s gonna get the deal.

Gogo Bethke 13:16
26 leads in the last 40 days and 17 are pending.

D.J. Paris 13:21
That’s unbelievable. Incredible, you know, I want to almost stop there only because I don’t think there’s that is such an amazing so. So basically, let’s go through the steps. So the first thing you want to do is make friends with agents in other areas and other areas and you should also do within your own state to just not in your immediate area because you’re probably going to get more referrals than anything for maybe people moving out of out of the city or or wherever you are. So definitely find some people in the state that just cover totally different areas different MLS is all of that but certainly all over the country. And so I’m trying to think like how would you go about doing that? Well I guess if you go to a conference so now our conference is coming up in mins coming up. There’s lots of conferences your your brokerage might have a conference that’s nationwide. If you have a nationwide or international firm, you could always just reach out to people in the firm and say, Hey, how do I get in contact with other successful agents, I want to start this Facebook thing, but I guess you really have to do some some legwork there. And if you’re really unsure about how to do it, and you have you know, nobody, you can always go to Zillow and just start looking at people’s reviews and anyone you see that seems to be doing pretty well in a different area. Reach out to him and say hey, would you like to be part of my group? We’re going to do a couple of things here. We’re gonna support each other social posts and we’re gonna we’re gonna do this cool. Sort of lead supportive group thing and all that gosh, that’s it’s not that hard to do.

Gogo Bethke 14:43
And put in California realtor. Delaware realtor. Yep. Oh, hi. Oreo comes up, right? You comes up pick one that you kind of feel like you kind of have this thing in common, right? You do social media. I do social media. I have two kids. I have two kids, right. We get to see who they are. Pick one.

D.J. Paris 14:59
The The other thing too is do this because there are websites that do this. So like we’re, we’re lucky enough to be on a lot of like best real estate podcast lists that we don’t even know about. We just happen to see it every so often online. Same thing exists for social media, best agents in Illinois for social media, things like that, you’ll you’ll find, because that’s really what you want. You want people that are good at social media, because they get it they understand the power of referrals and engagement equity

Gogo Bethke 15:24
sparks if you don’t fall asleep, yet, yeah. I’m just saying in case you didn’t know, I’ve been number one in the States in the last three consecutive years and number 16 in the nation. And the 15, before me all have HGTV shows, and I don’t you need to get one. So maybe somebody’s listening out there. I would love my own show. Just kidding. Well,

D.J. Paris 15:45
we do we do have HGTV people that listen because they reach out to us from time to time to have some of their people on our show. We just haven’t. I don’t think we’ve ever done it yet. But we’re still working.

Gogo Bethke 15:56
They wanted luxury waterfront property. Like what do you call luxury? Because we have waterfront right but I’m in the boonies of Michigan. So luxury for me. So the luxury what they were looking for in the luxury Pinckney Michigan, right, it was a difficult luxury. So I didn’t I didn’t make the cut. But yeah, I would definitely recommend it. Whatever your style is, right? You want to find similar agents, because then it’s just it’s like being home in your own group.

D.J. Paris 16:23
And the only other suggestion I have is around your local community groups. So I live in a neighborhood called Wicker Park in Chicago, just Google wicker in Facebook, do a search for Wicker Park, and oh, there’s a community group. And it’s actually quite a big neighborhood. So there’s lots of people and here’s what I would recommend. Because every I don’t really follow every post, because I don’t really care that much. But it’s a lot of people saying, Hey, I’m selling this or I lost my dog or, you know, whatever, I hey, I need a new hairstylist, who should I go to things like that? It’s all referral based, and at least several times a week, two or three times a week, somebody’s like, Hey, I’m thinking of moving to the area, does anyone have a good realtor. And now here’s, so that’s an amazing opportunity, here’s the problem, you’re probably not so on top of that group, unless you’re really checking it all day long, you’re probably too busy to do that. If it was me, I would hire a virtual assistant 9am to 5pm, or whatever times you know, are its most active. And I would say one of your jobs is you’re going to have an eagle eye on this and you’re gonna have access to my social media account. And the moment or even better, maybe use your own account and say, You know what, you need to talk to this woman go go, or whoever. And then immediately they message you say you got to get in touch with this person. Because

Gogo Bethke 17:36
that’s a great idea. Because a virtual assistant, you can have anywhere from three to 10 bucks an hour, right. But here’s the other thing that you must do for all of these different groups, you have to set up each group notifications. So you’re going to open up the group, you’re gonna go on the top right hand side, where you see those three dots, you’re going to click here, you’re gonna go to notifications, you’re going to set it to like, I know, Doc’s cracking, or a train coming by your choo choo, like, whatever you would know, like, oh, that’s the honey badgers group. Right? So then I can jump on it. Get on it, right, because you don’t want to lose it. First. You snooze, you lose, right? If you message him three days later, that ship sailed on a long time ago, they’ve already closed.

D.J. Paris 18:13
Even if it’s been 10 minutes, it might be too long. So So definitely, you know, if you can hire somebody just to keep their eye on it. I boy speed the lead, right?

Gogo Bethke 18:21
So think of it this way. What would someone working eight hours a day? Do you think five bucks an hour is reasonable? You pay less than that? I think five is very reasonable. So they can do other things along the way, too. Yeah, five times 40 hours, it’s 200 bucks a week, it’s 820 bucks a month. What’s your average commission?

D.J. Paris 18:40
Well, if you figure like average price point, what 300,000 times two and a half percent. So 7500 in commission times, you know, whatever somebody splits at, so let’s just say $6,000. I don’t know something like

Gogo Bethke 18:52
a column. So if I told you give me 800 bucks, and I’ll give you six grand, would you do it?

D.J. Paris 18:58
I would do that. Yeah.

Gogo Bethke 19:00
That’s it, that’s if you only get one deal out of 40 hours worth of work, right? There’s no way you’re gonna get one.

D.J. Paris 19:09
And you might not get it month, one, two, or three, but month four, through whatever, it’s all going to accumulate. So if you don’t get anything, just keep keep going with it. It’s, it’s kind of,

Gogo Bethke 19:21
in my opinion, there’s no way you’re not gonna get leads, like this group that we belong to, there’s hundreds of leads that go in on every single day. And on top of it, yeah, the first month, even if you get the lead, right, it’s gonna take 345 days to close, you might not see the income of it, but you definitely gonna see the lead coming in. And then you have to have systems in place as your CRM program your follow up skills, your, your your scripts, right or how I don’t do scripts. I just like, Hey, Jessica Gaga, right? Like, I do personal conversation, but whatever your style is, you have to have that ability to turn that cold lead into a warm client into a commission. So you have to have that figured out and then have a transaction coordinator so you can bam bam, bam, boom, you don’t have to do people work right you get to the closing and close. to commission we’ll move on to the next you can. So while we work machine,

D.J. Paris 20:04
Awesome, well, I almost think that’s a perfect place to stop. I don’t want to go any further because that is such an amazing to. And I hope everyone if we went a little quickly here, just go back and re listen to it. It’s a short episode. But I just want to thank gogo for that amazing tip, social media share groups or referral groups. Definitely create one I look, every realtor wants to be part of a referral network. I mean, especially now and we’re seeing so many referral commissions coming and going in this industry. It’s just, I’ve interviewed people for the show recently who do nothing but referrals. Literally, that’s all they do. They don’t even live in the state they practice. They even refer to people in their own area, that they’re, they’re a broker because they don’t they don’t like I don’t want to do it. They just all they do is refer business. So

Gogo Bethke 20:51
here’s this kid I heard of he made 400,000. From referrals, only, he hasn’t closed, personally a single deal. All he does is make referrals. And you just collect the 25% from every single referral. And there you go. He’s really good at lead generation online, right? So he’s like a little kid that just figured out that there’s internet, right, but all he does is introduce his agents, they lead to the agent, right? Takes a 25% referral fee. I mean, 400 grand, haven’t sold a single house.

D.J. Paris 21:19
Amazing. Never did a showing. Yeah, amazing. So So for everyone listening, like just think of it this way. Like you most of us can’t probably do that next year, we probably have to still work with clients one on one. But what if you could get just one sale, a quarter out of it, or one referral a quarter, which probably you do more than that. But even if it’s just for additional deals, or three additional deals, three to four additional deals, just for creating a share group. I mean, that’s, that’s pretty that’s probably like another 10 grand in income to your pocket for doing well. If it’s

Gogo Bethke 21:53
six grand a commission, I mean, doing the quarterly that’s 24 grand. Right? And there’s no reason why you would only get one deal every quarter if you do this, right, get a deal a day, right? Because those things are happening.

D.J. Paris 22:08
And it’s reminding me what I need to do for our podcast is create a podcast share group with other real estate podcasts, and we can support each other See, I need to do this myself.

Gogo Bethke 22:20
If I may suggest what else please, I’d love to create a Instagram profile for this podcast. So I can actually tag you.

D.J. Paris 22:28
I know I know we we are in the process of that I’ve hired somebody to do that. And they’re going to start taking short clips from each episode and posting them there. Thank you for continuing to remind me because embarrassingly enough, I don’t, I have not done this for our own podcast. And our growth is going to shoot up from from just from doing that alone. But I’m also going to create a podcast share group so we can all support because there’s there are a lot of great real estate podcasts outside of mine as well. So I want to make sure I can support them. And they a lot of them support me. So I appreciate that. But go go, if anyone is out there listening, who isn’t getting the attention they need from the firm they’re at. Or maybe they’re in a team where they’re just not really happening or they feel like they’re maybe there’s something better out there. They can obviously talk talk to you about joining your team.

Gogo Bethke 23:16
Stay short, Ken. So we I started this org, I like to call it an organization, right because when I say team, it almost makes agents feel like I’m going to take a cut and I don’t write we become business partners. So sad. But you can just hit me up at Google’s real estate. If you follow me there you see all of our cute little celebrations, right of who we are and how we do it here. But we have now almost 700 agents in the team with organization in five different countries and 30 different states. So no matter where you are in the US, no matter what state you are, we can be business partners. And then I’ll help you with absolutely anything you get my bootcamp you get all of our weekly trainings, everything that I do all of my coaching and mentoring is free to everyone who partners with me.

D.J. Paris 23:57
I love it. So visit Gogo. You can also please follow her on social media at gogos real estate. And also, definitely consider it don’t even consider just please go do this. I promise you, not one person who has bought this. Bought this program who listens to our show has ever said anything other than that was the best money I’ve spent for any sort of training her Go Go goes boot camp, her social media boot camp shoot, you will learn there’s what hundreds of hours of video instruction, there’s I mean, it’s just insane. And whether you’re brand new, and you haven’t ever created a profile, or whether you’re pretty adept at social media, but just want to get to the next level. I’m telling you, and I’m going to do it too. So I am going to finally get an Instagram account set up for the this next year for our podcast and I want to see what the numbers jumped to as a result because I know it’s going to be big but consider investing in the boot camp. Just visit Gogo podcast.com again Gogo podcast.com to get a special percentage off just because you are keeping it real listener and follower gogo thank you once again for being on the show we love having you on you’re always bring great content to us and you are I have to look at our numbers but I think you’re our most listened to guests out of all the regular guests we have. So we are super grateful to have you and I know the listeners love love it when

Gogo Bethke 25:17
you can see it can I somewhere see those numbers are now

D.J. Paris 25:25
yeah, maybe I maybe I have to look through to see how easy it is something for me one day definitely I will definitely work on that. I’ll have our team take a look at that. It’s weird a podcast analytics are so goofy there’s there’s not a real easy way to do it, believe it or not. But anyway, I will work on that. But for everyone listening, please continue to tell a friend. This is a perfect episode to tell a friend about think of one other real estate agent that needs to do more with their social media or is frustrated by not getting the results they want in social and send them a link to this episode. You can just send them to our website keeping it real pod.com Or you know pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. Gogo. We will see you on the next next month. Congratulations on all the success and we’ll see you next time.

Gogo Bethke 26:11
Thank you so much for having me. See you next time.

Joe Zimmerman with The Zimmerman Group talks about the beginning of his career in real estate and how he built his business. Joe describes how he and his team use evets to build a community with like-minded people to support each other. Joe also discusses mindset and what his approach towards work and life and how disruptors impacted his business. Last, Joe talks about how he built his team.

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

Joe Zimmerman can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by iGuide.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode is brought to you by eye guide agents you already know you need professional photography for your listings. But do you know what else you need that is equally important but overlooked by the majority of Realtors, 3d tours and accurate floor plans. National Association of REALTORS has found that buyers rate floor plans as the third most important part of a listing even more important than neighborhood information. Also 20% of buyers will ignore listings that do not contain floor plans. I guide has the most accurate floor plans and best virtual tour technology in the industry. Visit go i guide.com. To find a local photographer for your next listing. top producers know the value of floor plans and virtual tours. Take your business to the next level by visiting go i guide.com. That’s go the letter i guide.com. 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 Joe Zimmerman. Before we get to Joe. Just a couple of quick reminders. Well, first, thank you for continuing to listen and support our show. If you’d like to help us keep growing, the best way you can do that is by telling a friend think of one other real estate agent that wants to get to that next level and hasn’t yet done it. Or, you know, it’s funny when I was at the National Association of REALTORS going off script for just a second, I got to meet some of our fans. And surprisingly, the fans I met out at the National Association of Realtors Conference were already top producers. So this isn’t just for agents who want to be top producers. But if there is anyone that you know that is wanting to strive to get to that next level, whether they’re already a top producer, or they’re just starting out, send them a link to our show, send them over to our website, 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 sending our show to is already a podcast fan, then just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. And for everyone who is listening on an Apple device, if you’re listening through the apple podcast app, we’d really appreciate if you could leave us a review it helps us know how we’re doing and also helps us get more visibility to get more listeners tuned into our show. Hope everyone is having a great end of the year. And now on to our interview with Joe Zimmerman.

Today on the show, we have Joe Zimmerman from the Zimmerman group with Keller Williams one Chicago in here where I broadcast out of Chicago, Illinois. Let me tell you a little bit about Joe now with more than 18 years experience in the real estate industry. Joseph Herman has the tools and resources to provide each client and each agent on his team with something greater during every step of their real estate experience. Now Joe has been consistently recognized as a top producer in Chicago. He’s a he’s a bit of a legend here. He’s also built a team that sells more than 200 homes per year. Now the Zimmerman group continues to rank within the top 1% of the Chicago Association of Realtors, which is a big deal because there’s about 20,000 members so he’s in the top 1%. And he has been personally recognized by the National Association of REALTORS as one of their top 30. Under 30. We’ve had many 30 under 30 people here, Joe, of course has been one as well and the Chicago Association of Realtors has named him a top 40 under 40 list for his achievements in sales. Now as an agent, and as a team leader, Joe brings his excellent client service and extensive industry knowledge to each individual relationship. Above all else, Joe is a family man. And likewise, he encourages his colleagues to prioritize a healthy work life balance because he knows that personal joy yields professional success. Now please visit the Zimmerman group to learn more about what Joe and his team offer at and here’s the website it is the z pg.com. I’m going to spell that one more time. It’s the Z as in Zimmerman, P as in Paul G as in group.com vzpg.com. And by the way, I always forget to mention this until the very end and just in case you’re about to sign off or log off. And you’ve heard of this this far. Joe and his team are always looking for talent to join Zimmermann group. So another reason to visit zpg.com is whether you’re a client looking to work with a top producing team, or if you’re an agent wanting to work with a top producing team, check out The Z pg.com. That will also be in the show notes for this article. Sorry for this episode, Joe. Thanks for I know, there’s a long intro, but thanks so much for being on our show.

Joe Zimmerman 5:10
Hey, DJ, I appreciate it. Thank you very much as well. And I’m glad to be your Chicago representative here today. So thanks again, appreciate appreciate it. I’m honored to get this started.

D.J. Paris 5:20
It’s funny our I was telling Joe just before we started that our producers on a set, I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a Chicago guest. We have a couple of Chicago guests that regularly come on. But but not in this sort of style of episode we’re doing now. So it’s been a while for us. So excited to talk to a local Chicago guy. And you have such an impressive, just history in this industry. And your reputation is incredible as well. But I’d like to go all the way back to the beginning of your real estate career. Wouldn’t I would love to hear in our audience, I’m sure we’d love to hear sort of why you got into real estate and how it happened for you.

Joe Zimmerman 5:59
Yeah, DJ happy to share that. So I know it’s been a while now. It’s actually been 2020 plus years now. So you know, I actually got into the real estate by default, you know, I knew that I always loved the creative aspect of in the architecture and creative aspect of homes and, and things like that. And in you know, law loft, the Chicago loft like almost like this, the movie Big right Tom Hanks, always a dream right, you know, Gago, but that was that. So anyways, I started looking for real estate, you know, I’ve always been a saver and somebody that basically was an entrepreneur at heart, and I never rented right outside of college. So I saved all my money and decided, hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go look for a condo, you know, actually a loft in the city of Chicago. And when I started looking for it, I realized the love I had for it. So I was in the medical field. Right, then at that point in time out of college, I was in the medical field, and I did not like hospitals DJs. So obviously, that was not going to work out for me. So anyways, I went to my real estate agent at the time and said, This is really cool. What you do is is awesome. And he looked at me and said, you should get in this, you should do this. And literally, I took the week’s course later, and I jumped right into it.

D.J. Paris 7:13
Wow, that’s so so what age were you when when you were like right out of right out of school, basically. Yeah. So

Joe Zimmerman 7:19
I graduated college in 20. I was 21, and had a year job in the medical field at 22. And I started real estate in 2003.

D.J. Paris 7:27
Wow, that that, first of all, it’s impressive that you bought a place and never rented and we’re sort of savvy enough to save money at a time when I know at that age, that those ages, I just it wasn’t even an idea that I would own a place in the next, you know, 510 years. So that’s, I would say, Yeah, that’s probably a pretty good indicator that you’re into this industry. And I was as you were talking about the Chicago loft experience and, and like the movie Big and like I remember, you know, it’s funny that you brought that up, because I hadn’t thought about that movie in a long time. But that yeah, that scene where he gets his own his own place is I was like, man that looks like paradise because I was young at the time. And just remember

Joe Zimmerman 8:08
how beautiful that in the continent.

D.J. Paris 8:11
He had like a pinball machine. He had a video game and he had all sorts of cool things in there. But But you’re absolutely right. That’s that’s, that’s a it’s a great first introduction to real estate in a sense. And then, you know, look, I mean, a 23 year old, starting in this industry as a real estate broker is that is a tough, a tough thing, because I’m assuming most of your friends probably weren’t as forward thinking as you at that age for to start home ownership. I suspect you can do some leasing. That would keep you busy. But I am curious, like, how does a 23 year old start to get clients? It just seems like that would be a really difficult task.

Joe Zimmerman 8:53
Yeah. I mean, well, first and foremost, DJ, you know, it was different in tooth away was that 2002? Yeah. different environment than it is in 2022. Right. So, but at the end of the day, you’re right, it was difficult because more people were renting instead of buying right. And I didn’t believe in renting, right. I believed I believe in homeownership. So the hustle was real, right? You know, I’m not I’m not I’m not going to sugarcoat it any other way. You know, how did how did you do it really, really grit? Right? You know, really kind of just understanding that you’re going to have to you are going to have to work hard. Now, you know, that is that that changed, organically changed for me in my life. But in the beginning, I knew nothing other than work hard talk to people and opportunities going to come to you. So at 23 years old, I just you know, I out hustled a lot of my competitors.

D.J. Paris 9:45
Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve been doing the show a long time. And that answer is absolutely the most consistent answer we get about how do you get started? It’s particularly for agents that are that start younger, but even really for At any age at any age, that seems to be the universal answer. And I keep hoping one day somebody will say, No, I have the super secret technique that only I know about, but I’ll share it with your audience hasn’t happened yet. So it seems to be grit. And, and just learning the industry, I imagine. You know, in 2002, there was got there was so much development going on to and, and I know that I do remember those times, there were interest only loans that were real popular. And people were, you know, able to, you know, sort of see do things maybe a little differently than they are today. But you know, how important were like for a new agent like yourself, how important by using grit, were things like open houses Was that was that important for you as an agent who maybe didn’t have listings? But sort of, you know, I don’t know how popular that was back then for new agents to say to a more exist, more experienced agents. Hey, can I come to open houses for you?

Joe Zimmerman 10:55
Yeah, I mean, DJs, a great question. And I appreciate it. And I did open houses and realized early on, I did not like them. So now fast forward through some years, I’ve had some coaches in my career and stuff like that, and who have basically said to me, Hey, do what you want to do, right? Like build, build the business that you want to bid build, buy stuff that you will absolutely do? Well, I realized early on that I was not going to be doing open houses, right. So I left but I did leverage other agents that I worked with, you know, at the brokerage I worked with, to get opportunity to go out there and show places, right and build relationships with people. So I educated myself, but really what I what I did at a high level was just contact people, right, which we now know is, you know, kind of categorize in my world is the 33 touch with Gary Keller, you know, the real estate agent book. But I literally came up and grew up in, in, in a culture that my parents taught me, I’ve just, it’s a contact sport, no matter what you’re doing, as far as sales is concerned, it’s a contact sport. So just talk to people, right, and talk about an opportunity for them.

D.J. Paris 12:01
Yeah, I mean, it’s funny, that probably is. It’s funny, I have a personal trainer. And I asked, I asked her, I asked her recently, I’ve been with her for a few years. And, and I said, boy, what’s I said, you know, it’s funny, people are always looking for like the fountain of youth. And, and, you know, maybe there are some some particular lifestyle habits that will prolong people’s lives, obviously, diet, exercise, various things to prove happiness, and etc. And she goes, you know, what the real fountain of youth as she goes, it’s a strength training. And she goes, it’s, you know, that’s actually, you know, sort of what science has said, is one of the most beneficial ways to sort of slow down the aging process. And, and, you know, I wish it was something that was took a lot less effort. But But I think contacting people is, is maybe that same thing for real estate agents success, and it really is about your sphere of influence. And like, I’m a huge, huge fan of Gary Keller, and, of course, you are to your work work at his company. But Gary Keller, of course, with the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, which is, I haven’t found anything better written about how to be successful. And I know it was recently updated. But, but yeah, the 33 touches is everything, right? It’s making sure everybody you know, doesn’t forget what you do, and why they should contact you. So I’m curious, too, because I know that there’s a lot of our listeners who think, well, I don’t, yeah, I know, I should be talking to my sphere, and just, you know, you’ve mentioned presenting them with an opportunity. If you don’t mind, you know, and I don’t want you to share, you know, too much of of, you know, your, your team’s sort of secret sauce, but when you when you are talking about an opportunity, you know, what, what are some of the things that you mentioned, to to your contacts,

Joe Zimmerman 13:45
ya know, in DJ were myself and my team are open book and transparent, you know, so we will, we will share everything that we can because we believe that with each you get the industry better together, right? And, and, you know, not not become competitors, right? And just go around. So, you know, it’s to that point, what do we do? Well, you know, now in the world of social media, right, and LinkedIn and, and Facebook and all that people typically know what you do, right? And that’s a fair statement to say, right? So what what our strategy now is, is really building a community of like minded people. And we do that through events, okay. And I want to define events for you and events, your call to action. It’s not necessarily a lot of times you hear events and you think, Oh, I gotta throw a party or I gotta do something that’s gonna cost money. That is part of it. But it’s also a call to action thing, right? You know, something call to action to bring value to your clients to build a community of like, like minded people. So at the end of the day, right, it’s easy to call people up or text people in today’s world or whatever your preferred method of communication is, and just say, hey, DJ is Joe Zimmerman call I just wanted to let you know about an event that we’re having would love to invite you and see if you and your family will be welcome to come you know, are welcomed. However, that is right. If so, at the end of the day, we’re not doing the, you know, never too busy for your referrals or anything like that. We’re really just building a community of like minded people who want to help support each other.

D.J. Paris 15:11
Yeah, I love all of that. And I will just say, This is my own personal preference. And there’s of course, no right or wrong answer this, but please don’t do the I’m never too busy for your referrals thing that is that has been played out 3040 years ago. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to read it say something different. But But I think what Joe said is great. So I asked Joe, just to recap this question, you know, what, are you reaching out to people? What’s the opportunity and just said, Well, I create an event with an opportunity, I invite, it gives me a perfect reason to reach out and say, Oh, by the way, I’m posting this thing if you want to show up great. Now, I suspect with you know, I don’t know are you guys going back to doing in person? Are you still staying virtual for now?

Joe Zimmerman 15:52
You know, the day we’re doing a hybrid of both? Right? You know, sometimes it’s, Hey, come by and pick up, you know, a bottle of wine from us. Or sometimes it’s, Hey, support this local charity like paws in Chicago. We just didn’t, yeah, where we supported paws in Chicago, it was outside, right. But one of the better ones that we did DJ, which I would encourage everyone to do was last year because you couldn’t visit Santa. Right? We’d like to send it to them via zoom. Right? So we have really, yeah, absolutely. Right. We had we sent it out and sent ahead had timeslots registered zoom was Santa. Right. So we have prior to Santa had the playa Santa background, we have probably 150 families registered for

D.J. Paris 16:32
this. Why? I’ve never heard of anybody having done that it is seems like such a no brainer. And wow, what is what uh, so I love this too, because this isn’t necessarily a, you know, hey, and again, in no way am I suggesting that having events that are like first time homebuyer webinars or not, or seminars are not a good idea. Those are great ideas. But I love the fact that you’re having other types of events, social events, fun events, volunteer events, like with pause, the Santa thing is amazing. And what a great, so basically, you’re just providing value to people.

Joe Zimmerman 17:12
Yeah, just letting them really, you know, in today’s world, people want to know who you are, right? They want to know what you stand for and who you are. Obviously, now being in the real estate career for 20 years, I you know, as you said, it’s the reputation is yeah, I could sell a home, right? I could find a home for someone. But at the end of the day, people want to feel good about what you stand for and who you are. So having these events is, you know, is something that we do at a high level and do well to let them know who we are that we care about them.

D.J. Paris 17:41
Right. Sure. And being passionate, like pauses is such a great example of a a charitable organization that it I think they’re nationwide, I believe, but certainly they have a huge presence here in Chicago. And they’re, you know, they’re basically an animal shelter adoption center. And, you know, it’s funny, I’ve always thought volunteer efforts really don’t get utilized enough by real estate agents as an event. Because I think most people are very busy in their lives, especially if they have families and children. And maybe they have this aspiration to volunteer more, but they’re probably busy, they’re working a job, they’re also doing home stuff, and you know, everything else that is included and just living a life. And sometimes volunteer stuff doesn’t always make the top of that list. And so here you are giving them an opportunity to fulfill maybe even that part of them that doesn’t always get to be able to do that. So they’re gonna feel good about themselves, they’re gonna feel good about you also for introducing them to it and who doesn’t like animals, right? So like not to say that that was a calculated thing. I’m sure you’re super passionate about paws. I have I adopted a pet from actually from anti cruelty not paws. But But, but I’m a big believer in that stuff, too. But again, people just love animals and they love to, to want to give back. And so it’s really such a smart, smart thing to offer. Because it gives people a reason to feel good about themselves. And at the same time go, Hey, Joe put this really cool event together. So I love that I absolutely love that

Joe Zimmerman 19:09
opportunity, right? It’s an opportunity to feel good about yourself, right to go out and go get weather, no matter what it is. It’s some sort of opportunity to do something. Right.

D.J. Paris 19:18
Totally. I’d like to talk I know you are very extremely passionate about mindset. We talk about this a lot on the show it comes up a lot but I think it can never be talked about too much until are told my audience tells me no more mindset stuff because your five years they just asked for more and more discussion on mindset our audience they love it. So I’m just curious on on what that means to you and how you think about, you know, getting yourself in the right headspace to not only lead your own business, but you’ve got a team to lead you’ve got a lot of responsible you’ve got a family to take care of as well and children. So let’s talk about mindset and sort of what how you think about it.

Joe Zimmerman 19:57
I mean, honestly dj, i I couldn’t be more passionate about mindset, right? Because at the end of the day, you know, my belief and our belief, with a lot of people that we surround ourselves around is, you know, 90%, of center of success is mindset, right? And I’ve been passionate about around the Millionaire Real Estate Agent book, I referenced it already once. And at the end of the day, the first half of that book is about mindset. Right? And it’s about you need to think it first, right? You need to think it and believe it before you start to implement it. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t think it and believe it, you’re, you’re, you’re not going to succeed, period. Right? So it’s the same thing with so much, it’s just the passion around that around with also raising children. Right, that, you know, just talking to them about what their mindset needs to be, you know, in removing those limited beliefs from their life of, oh, I can’t do that or no, and, you know, and really kind of, you know, leading with Yes, and how instead of No, because, right, you know, and really, you know, the plans, the plans, and the strategies can always be there, somebody has already done this before you, right, whether it’s in real estate, building, a business, parenting, whatever it is investing, somebody has already done it, the plans are there. But the first domino is believing that you can do it, right. And if you don’t believe that, you can do it, you’re done. You’re toast, right? So so having that mindset,

D.J. Paris 21:21
or even just, you know, if you’re brand new to the industry, and you’re like, Well, I don’t really have any confidence, because I don’t know enough to be confident, I would say, if that’s where you are, maybe just have the belief that you can become competent, that you can learn this stuff, that thankfully, success does leave clues, and there are boy just almost an infinite amount of resources these days for successful agents, including just listening to this podcast, but certainly, there’s a million books and YouTube videos you can watch about, about sort of the skill set and just, you know, if you don’t work at an office, where there’s training or support, you know, it’s amazing, now you can actually get that. So I, I almost think you’re so right is just believing that either you have the skills already to do it, or that you can get develop the skills to be able to do it. And, and thankfully, we’re in an industry where there’s so many members, so many real estate agents that there’s just so much material out there to learn from.

Joe Zimmerman 22:19
Yeah, no, absolutely, you’re, you’re spot on what you say there. And like I said, you know, be strategic as far as how you’re going to think and what your mindset is, and then again, just just emulate somebody’s business that you want, is what I would suggest to, you know, to to others, right, there are the people that are out there that produce big numbers with big teams, you know, and, you know, they might, that might be their life by design that they want, I have chosen over my career that, you know, time is more important to me now than money, right? You know, at the end of the day, I’ve I’ve made some investments and done some things that you know, and have some some income coming in that I have funded the life that I want with some of these investments in time with my family, and the people I care for, and my team is more important. So that was a mindset shift for me. Right, you know, so again, that’s, that’s the beauty of mindset of of choose it, and then go for it.

D.J. Paris 23:15
Yeah, it’s it. Boy, you said a lot there. This idea of emulating success is it’s so interesting, I asked a lot of times are the top producers that are on our show, how often do newly licensed agents or agents that maybe they aren’t even newly licensed, but just you know, agents who are struggling or looking to sort of get that, that next level of business, how often they’re reaching out to these because we only interview top 1% agents from all over the country. And they and almost exclusively, they say, you know, I don’t get that many requests from other agents that say, Hey, can I take you out for a quick cup of coffee and learn a little bit about what you do? Or can I just sit in your office while you’re doing some stuff? It’s it’s, it’s surprising. And I’m not suggesting every one of our listeners immediately message Joe to take his time, because we know how important time is for him. But it is something that that I’m sure you’d recommend to agents is find somebody that that you admire and reach out. And I bet you’d be shocked how many people say, Sure, I’ll give you a little bit of time.

Joe Zimmerman 24:18
Absolutely. DJ 100%. I mean, that’s probably the one thing that I would like everyone to hear on this right is find, find the person that’s business you want or life you want to emulate, and then reach out to them. Right? Because at the end of the day, if you don’t hear their story, or hear how they approached it or their failures, right, you know, as long as well as their successes, you’re just assuming that how it went. And we all know what happens when you assume right? So at the end of the day, you know, you need to hear it from them, you know, and they will be willing for the most part. They’re they’re going to be willing because they don’t want you to have the same struggles that they had. They’re gonna be willing to share all of their six test says all their failures with you.

D.J. Paris 25:02
And they also might overtime say, Hey, I have a team, I have a group. You know, I’d love to talk to you about about joining forces. So I know that there’s possibly some even aside from all the skills you’ll learn, and the habits, you’ll learn, might have some business opportunities there as well. So don’t be shy reach out to these top agents. When we first started the show, the show is all about talking to top producers. And we just reached out to a bunch and eventually some people said, yeah, and now we don’t really have to do that. But but it is something that we were shining, and we were nobody, and nobody knew us. And we just said, Hey, can we have you know, on the show? And would you be willing to tell, you know, our non existent audience at the time, all about your business, and they said, Sure, and I don’t think I don’t know that we ever got turned down maybe once or twice, but hundreds and hundreds of episodes later, it’s, it’s it’s pretty, pretty amazing that most top producers, like yourself are so generous and willing to share a little bit of their knowledge with other agents. And I also know, disruption is is your is very interesting to you, as well. And we hear about the real estate industry being disrupted. I suspect since the beginning of your career, even, although maybe that word wasn’t used as much. But really, there’s been a huge evolution in technology since he started and to where we are today. And there’s new players in the space all the time. Some make it some don’t. Some are profitable, some aren’t. But it really has changed the way the real estate agent or broker here in Illinois, we call them all brokers, but how they interact with clients and what their responsibilities are, you know, probably when you started, I imagine the MLS wasn’t easily available to people outside of this industry. It was really behind lock and key, the Zillow is of the world hadn’t really become a thing yet. And so it wasn’t as easy to find the inventory if you were not working with an agent. Now, of course, anyone can get to the MLS without without an agent. But let’s talk about about disruptors and what that means to you and how you found that impacting your business?

Joe Zimmerman 27:09
Well, the reason DJ, thank you for asking me that, because the reason I’m so passionate about it is this this business This industry has been. So such a such a blessing for me and my family. Right. So I’m passionate that I that I do what I can to keep the agent as the fiduciary and keep the agent in the center of the transaction. Now, you know, in my opinion, this, the fundamentals are always going to win. Right. I’m a big, I’m a big reader of John Wooten. And, you know, oh, sure, right, you know, the fundamentals are always going to win. So master the fundamentals is what I want people to hear. And by doing that, it’s it’s time on task over time with these fundamentals, right. So you know, to go out and play in the NBA and play on an all star game, and you can’t dribble you right? You’re not going to you’re not going to do very well. Right. So at the end of the day, master that but when we talk about disruption, that you’ll agree with me DJ, I mean, there’s it’s complete chaos out there, right? I don’t know if we’d chaos. I don’t know if the consumer knows who to you know, go to or trust anything anymore. Right. So, but the reason that I see what’s what’s going on, and why I’m so passionate about it is because we can remain as a fiduciary if we’re if we all do it on a united front, right. And my suggestion is that we master the fundamentals of running a business, we don’t get attracted to those shiny objects. We use technology to enhance the experience, but we remain the judiciary in the center of the transaction, if that makes sense.

D.J. Paris 28:39
It does. I’d like to hear a little bit more about what you see the role of the agent as today, and maybe how that shifted a little I think you’re right and, and I’m a huge coach. I don’t I know nothing about sports, truthfully. But I know who coach John Wooden was and he was the UCLA coach. And he basically was the winningest coach in NCAA history. I don’t know if that’s changed, but I think he won seven NCAA championships in a row or something like that. And then I think he won like nine over 13 years or whatever, something that’s never been replicated and he was only a fundamentals guy. In fact, one of my favorite John Wooden sort of stories was I heard him interviewed once and they said you really never look at the scoreboard so you talked about shiny objects, you know, maybe getting that million dollar listing or, or whatever that that just amazing client that’s going to take your business to the next level. I thought that way when when we partnered with Facebook and Zillow to be come on our show. I thought, oh my gosh, this is the shiny object. This is going to take my podcast and I love both Facebook and Zillow. I’m in no way suggesting that they weren’t great partners. They are but did not take my take my podcast to the next level. But Coach John Wooden said I never looked at the scoreboard. And so I went okay, he looks at the scoreboard and he was like No, I legitimately never look at the scoreboard because it doesn’t matter. He said I don’t care if we win or Lose. Because if you know he would tell his players if you just, if you just exercise the fundamentals, you’ll walk off the court. And you’ll know if you if you tried your hardest, if you tried your hardest, you’re going to feel good no matter what happens to the scoreboard. And if you if even if you do win, but you didn’t try your hardest, you’re not going to feel good. So I’m such a big fan of that. I apologize for going on a little, little tear there. But I’m such a big fan of John Wooden. So anyway, but yeah, let’s talk about the the role of the agent, you know, how is it shifted? And and how is technology made part of the agent, you know, sort of responsibilities easier? Even?

Joe Zimmerman 30:36
Yeah, I mean, so, again, my my coaching and my training has always been, hey, the business has always been agent led and technology enhanced. Yeah, that has now shifted where it’s going to be now it’s now going to be technology led and Agent enhance. So at the end of the day, that experience that needs to be given to the to the consumer has never been more heightened than it is right now. Right? People want to feel good. They want to feel communicated to right. So the disruption, I personally think that you have all of the focus on the technology disruption. And at the end of the day, really the internal agent is really disrupting the industry as well with with teams and expansion. Right? Yeah, you know, so, you know, at the end of the day, like I encourage everyone to go at this at your you know, if you want to do it by yourself or build your own team. And you should also consider joining a team as well, because the service that these teams are providing now to the to the consumer is at the highest level, right. And in, you know, in, there’s an expectation now from the consumer, that there’s an instant response. And there’s a great experience and things. So using technology as that tool, right to help it’s to help the people and the systems and the tools, right as any business model people systems tools, using the technology as the tool to help communicate better is important, but giving that experience and my opinion is is the disruption that is happening and needs to happen. Right? And we are we are giving that in now. The real estate industry is just upping their game, right?

D.J. Paris 32:12
Yes, I agree. And I’m you know, I just went through a buying process myself. And even though I’m in the industry, and we have what 800 Realtors here at our own firm, and the firm you’re at there was more than that here in the Chicagoland area. And I thought, Oh, I won’t go through the emotional ups and downs of the buying process. I had been through it before I thought oh, I not only have I been through this before I’m in the industry, this is not going to be emotionally challenging for me. And it was, and I was freaking out the whole time during the process from start to finish, I was completely stressed. I was you know, going through that emotional roller coaster of, you know, well, they want this and we want this and just, you know, oh, is this gonna fall apart? Can I afford it, etc. And I really relied upon my boss who helped helped me through it to really just talk me off the ledge a bunch. And I realized, you know, the average consumer I mean, I’m I’m a little high strung, but I’m not, I don’t think I worry more than the average person. But I said, if I’m in this industry, and I’m freaking out about a purchase, and it isn’t even my first purchase, this has got to be something that I don’t think technology has solved for yet the sort of emotional intelligence that an agent can bring to sort of keeping their client, you know, the user said, feeling it at least if not good neutral, or at least if they’re feeling negative, they are there to hear that and help them and empathize and tell them you know, what is needed to so that they can relax a bit. And that’s something that I think, you know, if technology ever figures that out, I think we’re all in trouble one day, but But it’s probably not going to figure it out because it is a human to human sort of thing, empathy, sympathy connection. And just problem solving, you know, is really a still a face to face or human to human interaction. So I’m curious and how important that is for your team when you talked about, you know, the role of the agent shifting a bit. And technology is kind of leading the way but I don’t know if technology can can can solve for that yet.

Joe Zimmerman 34:11
No, I agree with that. There’s nothing like communication. Right? You know, so what’s your communication strategy? Right? So, you know, in my opinion, our team goes to, hey, what are the what are the systems that need to be that need to be running right for the people to implement? And then the tools, right people systems and tools, but when you ask about our team, it’s what is the communication system? Right? Because at the end of the day, like if you’re, if you’re a top producing team, and you’re holding, you know, 50 to 150 listings at a time, you know, some of these teams are now well, the one clients waking up that it’s only their home, right? Yeah, they don’t care about the other. They don’t care about honor. And 149 Right, they’re waking up. So what is the communication system so that these people are at ease all the time, right, you know, and you you mentioned something DJ And I’m gonna I’m gonna go back to it. So think about that anxiety, right? Have that in your in the industry, right? Yeah, at the end of the day, I, myself, my wife and I purchased a home a year ago actually, it was about a year exactly a year ago, couple days ago. And my sister in law, who’s a great real estate agent is on our team. She was our agent, like, I wasn’t, I was I was not dealing with and I couldn’t deal with it. I was like, No, this is this is, you know, this is on her. So, you know, a real a top producing real estate agent hired a real estate agent to buy to buy the home. So well,

D.J. Paris 35:35
all professional athletes have coaches, right. So it makes perfect sense, I did the same thing I was, was I technically, I think I was technically the agent on my deal. But really, my boss did everything because I said, I don’t know what I’m too emotional about this. And I also, I’m not thinking clearly and I don’t want to they sort of they say like a lawyer who represents himself as a fool for a client or something. And that’s not to say that people can’t do their own transactions, but but just the idea that it can be that stressful and emotional to have, you know, an objective third party come in and help. Again, that’s not something technology could solve or but But what use are not yet at least, and hopefully never. But what I what I what I did zero in on is something that that you said, that I think is so important for agents to hear, which is having a communication strat, like, most people don’t have a well defined communication policy or, or platform, like you were saying 33 touches, right, that’s a communication problem, strategy and process, and it’s difficult to implement that. But at least you know, that every single person in your sphere is going to get touched that, you know, whatever your, you know, team’s policy is, but they, they already know that, you know, before they’re even a client, they’re never going to forget me, they might maybe they’ll might choose one day not to use me, but they’re not going to forget about me because they’re gonna get touched by me all of these different ways. And, and I think most of our audience, you know, could if you don’t already have some sort of communication, strategy, or policy and Millionaire Real Estate Agent gives you a great example of how to set one up. That is something to consider for 2022 is, you know, don’t leave it up for chance that the people in your spirit is going to instantly use you just because you’re their friend, they might forget that you’re a realtor, or they might just out of sight out of mind. And having a communication strategy, whether it’s an existing client, I’m sorry to monopolize this, but I just was reminded of a top producer and in Chicago, I can’t remember exactly who it was. But it was somebody within like the top 10 or 15 producers and all of the Chicagoland area out of about 44,000 realtors, and I asked her, What’s the secret to communication? And she said, I’m embarrassed to say that she says, but I call every one of my clients every week and give them an update. And I said, okay, and and what else and she goes, that’s pretty much it. And I said, That’s it. And she goes, Well, I do other things, too. But she goes, that’s the one thing I do that most Realtors won’t even do is call my client every week and say, here’s what’s going on. So I just was reminded of

Joe Zimmerman 38:12
the day Think, think about think about what we’ve covered here, right? It’s like we’re talking about the workout in your trainer, right? You know, going back to that it’s like, Hey, pick something and do it right in the problem with the entrepreneurial real estate agent sometime is we think that we’re going to do it all and all at once. And we don’t do one thing and do it. So you work out as your strategy. Right with your right, this agent says, Hey, ya know, this is my system, I call them once a week. And that’s it. Well, that works. So you know, so don’t reinvent the wheel, keep doing that, right? If your trainer said to you, Hey, you want to lose some weight, you got to go run five miles a day, and you’re not a runner, you’re not going to do it. Right? So but they’re building a strategy for you that you’re going to do.

D.J. Paris 39:00
And I think too, in business, as you’ve done with building a group and building a team, which is so important, not that everyone has to do that. Of course, not everyone does. But think about it from a customer perspective. If if all of a sudden I’m going to hire Joe and get access to the resources that Joe’s team provides which Joe has a large team and they all have different skills. And Joe’s you know, going to you know, charge a particular fee for his services and say, Oh, by the way, you get access to my entire team versus just the solo practitioner. And that’s not to say that you can’t be a successful solo practitioner of course you can. Lots of people are but this idea of leveraging and what Joe said is, you know, hey, maybe you’re not good at something Well, maybe you can partner up with somebody who is good at that other thing that you just aren’t you just don’t want to do or you’re not good at or you don’t care about but you know should get done that fundamental of you know, I should be at open houses, you know, and and I’m gonna hire someone else to help do all That was or to partner with me, and maybe they’re not good at things that I am good at. So I do love this idea of, of working together and, and, and but at what point in your career did you find that it was time to start a team? I’m just curious. Yeah,

Joe Zimmerman 40:13
no, I appreciate that question, TJ. Because at my previous brokerage, I did a lot of development sales, right. Yeah. And I was juggling development, sales and outside brokerage at the same time. So again, by default, I had to just build a team before I even knew there was a strategy out there, or it was going to become a thing. Right? You know, right. I just, I had to find the leverage right away, because there weren’t, there wasn’t enough time in the day, right? You know, so, um, so you know, I now coach and know, the proven strategies a win the build the team, and I’ll get to that in a second. But I just find a fault just had to say, Hey, I needed to, I need help, right? I need leverage, I need somebody to take these buyers out, things like that. And I just did it. So I did that early on. And it was a mess. And it was chaos, because I wasn’t following a plan. So I learned a lot. But at the end of the day, when when I got when I when I walked into an environment, where it taught the fundamentals of how to build a team, and what the actual data was, and people weren’t pontificating their opinion, you know, follow the plan, right. And I follow the plan. And I would tell any realtor right now that leverage is key. And depending on your market, and where you’re at, you can do zero to about 30, maybe 36 homes a year with 36 Homes is a lot by yourself, you know, three homes a month, but when you’re tracking to do 24 to 30 homes a month, you need to start looking for leverage right away.

D.J. Paris 41:39
Yeah. And, yeah. And so it is it is one of those things where we’re now and think of it too, for our listeners on just how well that looks in a listing presentation, that you’re basically you mean, maybe you can even charge more if you have a team because you can say, well, I’m we’re have more mouths to feed here. And we’re offering more services that the individual practitioner, you know, maybe just can’t do, because we’ve sort of scaled this up. But yeah, having having people to leverage, you know, you also said something that I just was curious, this is a completely sort of off not off topic, per se, but off the the conversation we’re having. I’m just curious if you had a general thought you talked about working with developments. And that is a lot of our listeners dream situation is to work with developers, of course, every realtor wants to get chosen, maybe not every realtor, but a lot of them want to get chosen to be to represent certain projects. Do you have any suggestions about somebody who goes, you know, I’ve never really done that. But I would love to learn sort of how to develop those relationships.

Joe Zimmerman 42:47
Yeah, I mean, so I know, I sound like a broken record, and there’s no sexiness, DJ. But there’s no difference than staying in touch with your it’s building relationship. There’s no difference than staying in touch with your sphere. If this is a if this person just develops more homes than selling one, it’s really it’s the same strategy as far as forming the relationship with them. Now, there’s a second step to that, right, you know, and that you have to educate yourself on how to how to help market a building or a development and things like that, and how to price it out and all that jazz. But again, go find somebody who’s done it and ask them for their advice, you know, ask them to help you ask them for you know, you can do a referral fee from them, or some sort or partner up with them, which you said earlier, but the beginning of your question is, pick who you want to be in business with, and then go talk to them and build a community with them. Right? That’s, that’s again, there’s no no sexiness, it’s just the fundamentals.

D.J. Paris 43:46
Well, I think I almost think that’s a great place to end because it is that is really the the lesson of we’ve done cash 300 And whatever episodes of the show now, and that is that is always been a consistent message. And I think it’s a good one for people to hear. And, and yeah, maybe it isn’t sexy, but you know, when I go workout at the gym, and my trainer has me do push ups. That’s not sexy, either. But it’s, it’s a heck of a good idea. And so, you know, I think fundamentals are what win the game most of the time, sometimes you get lucky. But most people I don’t think can sustain luck over too long of a period. But certainly, fundamentals can get you through and mindset being one of those fundamentals. So I think what a perfect message to end on. I do want to mention for any of our listeners, a couple of opportunities for you with Joe and his team. If you are an agent here in the Chicagoland area and maybe you’re not getting the assistance you need from from your company or you just want to see what other opportunities are out there. Joe and his team would love the opportunity to chat with you. They are a top top top producing team here in the Chicagoland area so you can always find them at Joe’s and you can reach out to them via Joe’s website. which is the z pg.com. And also, if you’re an agent from outside of Chicago, of course, we have agents from all over the country and be in other countries. And if you do have clients moving to the Chicagoland area or you have referrals that that you are looking for a good Chicago agent to work with. Well, yeah, check out the Zimmerman group again, the zpg.com. Joe is here, I can vouch not that Joe needs me to vouch for him. But here in the Chicagoland area, Joe and his team are very incredibly well respected, and you probably won’t be in any better hands. So definitely reach out to him. And if there’s any buyers and sellers out there that also just want to work with a top producing team, or renters or developers reach out to the Zimmerman group at the z pg.com. All their contact information is there. Well, Joe, thank you so much for being on our show. I know you were on when I first started the show, believe it or not, four or five years ago, you were on my list of like people to introduce our people to get on the show. And I’m glad we were able to grab a few minutes of your time. So thank you for being on the show. And every one of your messages, I think will resonate with our audience because well, clearly it’s worked for you. And it seems to be a common sense approach. So for on behalf of the audience who want to thank Joe, and and for for coming on. And I know how much free time Joe has and isn’t much and so I appreciate you jumping on for for some time with us. And also on behalf of Joe and myself. We want to thank our listeners and our viewers for continuing to support our show. In addition to checking out Joe’s website, definitely check out ours as well, we have all of our episodes are streamed right from our browser if you go to keeping it real pod.com You can also subscribe to our show with any podcast app that you might be using, including iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, you know all the different places to listen to podcasts. So please tell a friend as well about the show. Think of one other agent that you know that could benefit from hearing from this great conversation with Joe and send them a link to this episode. We would appreciate it we’ll help continue to keep our show running. So Joe, thank you so much for being on the on the podcast. It really was about four years that I wanted to get you on here. So I’m so grateful that we finally did. And we thank you and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks,

Joe Zimmerman 47:21
Jay. Appreciate it very much.

Steve Siciliano and Darin Fyffe from Lowen Sign talk about their respective careers and their beginning of their joint business. Darin discusses what agents need to take into consideration before ordering signs. Next, Steve and Darin talk about the trends in design of signs and best practices around installation. Steve and Darin also discuss the the importance of updating the status of the home on the sign. Last, they present what services Lowen offers (Loyal Signs in Chicago) to their clients.

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

To get more information on the services Lowen Sign offers, please visit their website by clicking here.

D.J. Paris 0:00
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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 as we’re getting ready to wrap up 2021, we have a great interview with for you here today with Darren Fife and Steve siliciano. From Lowen signs, they’re going to be talking about best practices that top producers use with respect to their signage. So I thought that would be a great conversation. And it was but before we get to that conversation, just a couple of quick reminders as we round out the year, please, the best way you can help us is by telling a friend about our podcast. Think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing from top producers and send them a link to keeping it real best way you can do that is by sending them to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up any podcast app and search for keeping it real, hit that subscribe button. And for all of you that are listening right now on an Apple device via the podcast app, the Apple podcast app, we would really appreciate it if you would go and leave us a review that helps us helps us get more visibility and more listeners and more subscribers. But as always, thank you for continuing to support our show and now on to our interview with low insights.

All right, today on the show we have Steve siliciano and Darren might from Lowen signs and also from the loyal signs now. I’m going to introduce both Steve and Darren but we’ll start with Steve Now Steve scileanna has been born and he was born in Chicagoland his entire life, graduated from Eastern Illinois. He has a culinary certificate from ch IC. He’s been a real estate broker and property manager for 25 years before acquiring a small sign installation company in February of 2019. In December of 2019, he partnered up with low incorporation to develop a second sign installation company and established loyal real estate sign installers and loyal has realized exponential growth in the short time despite the pandemic. He’s very, very excited to continue growing that business. He likes to cook, play baseball, or basketball rather. And he’s also a supporter of any Chicago sports team. And he wanted us to say including Arlington Heights bears and for those sports fans out there, especially here in Chicago, we know that that is a big ongoing debate as are the bears moving to the suburbs, which is actually I was born in Arlington Heights, but I know virtually nothing about it, unfortunately. Sort of the worst person to ask about that. But anyway, Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve Siciliano 3:36
Welcome. Thank you, DJ.

D.J. Paris 3:38
I’m really excited. Go ahead and just do

Steve Siciliano 3:40
just for the record that the last name is Siciliana Oh, it’s a little, little

D.J. Paris 3:44
silly. I know. I said scileanna. Siciliana. My apologies. Yeah. Are we just could rename your scileanna But yeah, Siciliana is is much cooler. And I imagine so is your family from Sicily? Is that where Siciliana comes from?

Steve Siciliano 4:00
Well, I’m told no, we’re from Naples. But I do kid my elders a little bit about that. There has to be some sort of crossover somewhere there. Since our name kind of says it all.

D.J. Paris 4:11
Well, Naples is amazing as well unless we’re talking about Naples, Florida, which is awesome, too in a different way. We’re talking about Naples Of course it Italy. All right, and let’s talk let’s introduce Darren as well. Darren is from Darren Fife is from a small town he’s from it’s Hoisington. Kansas. Is that correct? Darren? That is correct. Hoisington Tech’s sorry, Kansas. He also graduated from Kansas State University. He has been a member of the loan signing company team for 11 years. He started out as a national sales rep worked all the way up to Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He oversees the entire sales and marketing staff of low and signs. He’s a huge fan of Kansas State Wildcats sports and the St. Louis Cardinals. I used to live in St. Louis. I can appreciate that passion. He is very passionate about his job and proud of what lowland science does and how they do it. Now please visit low and signs.com to learn what they can offer for all of your signage your physical marketing material needs. But if you’re in the local Chicagoland market, they the local version of low n is actually called loyal sign so you can visit loyal signs.com If you’re outside of Chicago, just go straight to low in signs and low in his l o w, en, and loyal signs. If you are here locally in the Chicagoland area. Guys, welcome to the show. Thanks for being on. And by the way, we should mention these are one of our sponsors, we love our sponsors. And we asked, we asked the guys here from Lowen and loyal to come on today, because they actually had a really good idea. And at first, I would have never thought of this idea. And I’m so grateful that they did. And the idea was let’s talk about signs. I’ve never had a conversation in the four or five years we’ve been doing this podcast we’ve done 300 And I don’t know 15 episodes at this point. We’ve never talked about signage. So I am so glad that that we’re have you guys on so let’s let’s before we get to, to you know what low and and loyal does. Let’s first talk about you guys and how you got into this business. Steve, you’ve been a Chicagoland broker, you’re very well known here in Chicago, tell us about how you got into the business 25 years ago, and sort of, you know how that career trajectory has has has happened?

Steve Siciliano 6:28
Well, I guess in the real estate business is about as random jumping from real estate to sign installation as it was from, from culinary school to real estate back in the day, I actually have an engineering degree. So I worked in the manufacturing sector for the first 10 years of my life after college, and then broke off and did some work in the restaurants for a couple of years, before coming across an opportunity to work in the real estate business and picked up some management jobs at first and then added the license later and, and built a business, you know, on my own ever since and it seemed to work was a very enjoyable job. I like being out with people. I really liked the construction portion of it and building homes and building condos at a time and putting people in places that that make them happy. And it’s usually a very important purchase for most people and one of the largest ones. So they’re pretty excited when it comes through. Okay. 25 years later I, I came across this small sign business, that installation business, I should say, that was literally servicing my office and a couple of offices in the local area around the Grange, and the gentleman and his wife who had been doing it for 1518 years, were going to retire. So long story short, you know, I talked to him about for the last few years of his of his business life anyway, and told him, you know, we’re going to sell this thing for you, I’ll help them, you know, get some value on it, put them in touch with our people. Well, turns out, I ended up buying it and was going to manage it from a side standpoint. And while my son who was just starting college was going to be my installer. So that worked out great for about nine months. We quickly modernized it and put things online and developed a smartphone app with a software company. And that was a big hit. And that just grew very quickly. And then in about what was it Darren September of that same year? A year? Yes.

So I run across Darren and his company, I actually reached out to him because I knew of Lowen as a realtor because I always bought my science from them. Because their quality is excellent and their shipping is quick. And I started by saying I want to be your preferred installer, meaning I wanted to you know, tap into their, their resources, their clients, I should say, when they were looking for installers and one thing led to another they saw an opportunity to to establish a bigger, I guess a bigger company and a bigger kickback from from generating sign business as well as installation business for the new division. And we progressed the partnership to to employment and it’s been really great ever since I kind of put brokerage as an agent, I should say kind of on the back burner and this thing has become bigger and bigger. By the month we started out. When I first started out we were doing about 80 installs a month. And now we can do almost 100 a day.

D.J. Paris 9:38
Unbelievable. That is incredible. Congratulations on the success of the company. It is an incredibly competitive business. And often you know it’s one of those things that I think agents, you know, they get assigned company and then they sort of forget that there’s other side companies that might be able to do things better or or with, you know, sort of a more cutting edge design or faster. And so I think this is a great opportunity just for all of our listeners to say, hey, you know, I’ve been using probably the same sign company for some time. And, and if it’s not low end, like, let’s check out what Lowen does as well. Darren, I’d love to hear about how you got into into this business.

Darin Fyffe 10:21
Yeah, mine’s not as exciting as Steve’s. But yeah, I, as you mentioned earlier, I graduated from Kansas State University. And my first job was actually in commercial banking in Kansas City and lived there for about five years, met my wife, we got married. And she is actually, we didn’t know this. But before we met, but she’s from the same area in Kansas that I’m from, she grew up on a farm. And after we got married, we wanted to be closer to family. So we started poking around the Wichita area, to try to find employment there. And I found Lowen. And they are a huge company. In central Kansas, I mean, we employ over 300 people there, and do all kinds of printing from from Fleet graphics, to real estate signage. So, you know, went in for an interview, got the job, and again, as you mentioned, started off at the ground level, and was driving all over the place, spent a lot of time at Texas, selling down there and, and just kept working my way up the ladder. And now I’m the Vice President of Sales and Marketing and, and yeah, managers manage a lot of people and and I love it. It’s awesome. It’s a great company. Couldn’t be happier. So

D.J. Paris 11:45
thanks, we’re glad to have you guys. You guys have been great supporters of our show, which, which we appreciate. And I think this will be such a fun conversation, because again, I’ve not really had it before. And you know, it’s funny, I think, oftentimes, realtors don’t realize or maybe don’t put enough thought into the aesthetics of their signage, and how most signs, you know, could be easily ignored. And it’s a real opportunity for an agent to get a bill creative. I’ve noticed there are some firms in the last few years that have started doing some cooler, more modern designs. I know you guys have a lot of that. But I’d really love to tell our talk to our audience about any trends that you’re seeing from agents that you think are working really well. You know, any sort of do’s and don’ts and just curious to get some best practice advice for for people think when they want to think about signage?

Darin Fyffe 12:45
Yeah, I think the, there’s, there’s a lot of different angles, I can take your DJ. Sure. But I think the biggest thing that people need to realize now is with the advancement of technology, there’s a lot of really cool stuff that you can do with signage. You know, you could you could do cut to shape stuff. So, you know, for example, we do, we do these huge heart shaped signs for this company up in the Dakotas. Really cool signs, I mean, so yeah, we can, there’s all day and with the printing technology, I mean, you can you can get as creative as you want. You know, we can print faces, and it basically anything animals, whatever you want us to print on your signage we can do. So so there’s that aspect, but I think most importantly, is depending on where you’re at, in the United States, whatever region you’re in. So like, for example, if you’re down in Florida, you know, on the coast, there’s salty air, so you want to make sure that you have the right we call it a substrate so the right, the proper metal so that it doesn’t rust with the salty air, you know, same thing like if you’re in you’re in Arizona, for example, it’s really really hot, really sunny all the time. So you want to make sure that your signage is manufactured correctly and has you know, a clear coat or protection over your, your your logos and whatnot. So that doesn’t fade and pill. So there’s a lot of different things that, you know, most people think that signage is a sign is a sign. Right. And honestly, I thought the same thing when I got into the business like wow, this, you know, but there’s so much that goes into it. It’s a very technical product. I know many of you may laugh when you hear that, but it really is. So yeah, those are just a couple things. We can I’m sure we’ll touch on several others as the conversation continues here.

D.J. Paris 14:47
Yeah, I just had a thought while while you were talking about you know the differences in the physical material and making sure that you have not only the right aesthetic look that you want but also the right type of sign that will withstand whatever weather, you know, is is appropriate for that area. And I was thinking about the aesthetics of it and realizing that a really big sort of gift was dropped into Realtors lap laps in the last couple of years, sadly due to the pandemic, so of course, a horrible tragic thing that the world is experiencing and continues to experience. But there is one neat one myth one of many little gifts. This I want, I just realized is QR codes. So we all knew we’ve known about QR codes, it’s been around for like 20 years, this is not a new technology. And none the public really didn’t embrace QR codes until about the beginning of the pandemic, because we all know when we when they started letting us back into restaurants. We all started noticing, oh, we’re now using QR codes for menus, we’re probably still doing that at every restaurant we’ve been to. So now the entire country, the whole problem with QR QR codes has been adoption, getting people to actually get used to doing it. And most people just never would ever do that in their daily life. Now, almost everyone in the country is using QR codes whenever they go to a restaurant. And so this is a huge opportunity for realtors to put them on their signs which Realtors used to do before. But I bet the number of people who actually, you know, scan to learn more kind of stuff when they’re driving by a sign or walking by one. I bet that usage has just gone through the roof. And I’m curious if you guys have seen that. I may be wrong, but it just seems like more people are using them now than ever before.

Darin Fyffe 16:40
Yeah, it’s very interesting. You mentioned that and you are you are right. We have noticed a pretty large uptick in in the QR code printing. And we also have our own QR code management software that we wrote ourselves. It’s called mobi bricks, that’s mo b i b Rix and it’s very, very easy to use. You just log into mobi. bricks.com, create an account. And you can literally so if let’s just say, writers, real estate writers, then you had 25 different writers that you purchase with 25 Different QR codes. They’re reusable with the software system, you can go in and, you know, reassign certain URLs to to the QR codes and have them for a long time and just keep reusing them. So yes, they kind of died on the vine there for a while. But yes, the pandemic has absolutely brought them back to life.

D.J. Paris 17:40
And this is Go ahead. Go ahead, Steve. I’m sorry.

Steve Siciliano 17:44
I know Darren speaks at a national level. But I, my what I see, I should say on a daily basis has not been as it’s not as popular as you might think. I do get some requests for realtors to put a QR code on there sign like an add on not not as a pre printed like one if that’s the sign go to their website or whatnot. I don’t see a lot of them pre printing either. I have probably more I’ve got probably 5000 signs, and I don’t think there’s five that have.

D.J. Paris 18:20
That’s That’s amazing. I think that’s a huge opportunity for realtors to realize that the average consumer is using QR codes now. And you know, it can’t be that expensive to throw a little add on onto a side scan me to learn more whatever.

Steve Siciliano 18:37
Oh, yeah. It’s not expensive. Yeah, there’s a there’s a similar program out there that at least a few of the larger brokerages have adopted. And that’s the it’s similar, I should say. But it’s, it’s used as text information. So you text a pre determined code to a predetermined address, and it sends you that same thing. Sure, realtor’s website or their listing information, or whatever they want to test to it just like a QR code. And I think maybe from a realtor standpoint, those have been more popular because you don’t have to be standing next to the sign to do it, right. Whereas a QR code, you gotta be close enough for your camera to take it. And you can only print the QR code so big on a realtor sign right. You’re limited to two square feet in most towns in the Chicagoland area. So it’s not a huge sign you can’t put can’t make it all QR code. You’re right, you know, it may change, it may get better. Who knows?

D.J. Paris 19:30
Well, my thought is, you know, as a consumer thinking about it, and I know that we don’t have to spend any more time on this, but I just was thinking if I’m walking by a property and I live here in the metro Chicago area, so there’s a lot of congestion and I can walk by and see things obviously out in the suburbs. It isn’t quite so much that way. But But I know if it was me, and I was interested in looking at a property and I see the for sale sign. I know that I as a consumer would be way more willing to scan a QR code versus sending a text. And I am not suggesting people shouldn’t have both options on a sign? You absolutely should. Because, as Steve mentioned, yeah, maybe they’re driving by and the only thing they can get is the phone number. And they can text in and get and also the realtor wants that phone number, of course, as well, because they want to call the person back and say, Hey, I saw you’re interested. So I get that, that that’s preferable to a realtor to get that phone number text instead of the QR code. But if it’s me, I don’t know that I want those text messages, because then I have to unsubscribe from them. And I’m like, now I’m going to be an A, but the QR code thing we’re all conditioned to use. So I would just as a suggestion to our listeners, consider adding both to your sides, add, you know, text this To learn more, and you can create an automated system, there’s a million different services that provide that and then, you know, these guys through Moby bricks can actually do your QR codes as well. So I just just thinking of that as as an option. But I’m also curious to talk about design. Are you guys seeing what are you seeing sort of trend wise, with respect to the the sort of design of signs are we seeing, are we still seeing a lot of agents headshots, on signs? Are? We see a trend moving away from that? Obviously, there’s both. But I’m curious on on, if you have any general suggestions of and maybe urban markets and rural markets work differently that way? I’m just curious if you have any best practices, because we get that question a lot here at our own firm, we’ve got about 800 agents here in our company, and they always are asking things like, hey, on my business card, or on my site, should I have my headshot? Should I not? Just and again, there’s no right answer for everyone. But I’m curious on what you guys think about that?

Darin Fyffe 21:52
You know, that’s, that’s a good question. I think headshots are, you know, it’s 5050. I mean, some people really like them and want them and some just don’t. So if that’s just preference, but as far as as style, and, and some suggestions, I’m always a big believer that less is more, you do not want your signage to be too cluttered. You know, you want to watch your color, you don’t want to, you know, you know, a purple font on a black panel or something like that, because you’re just not gonna be able to see it from the street. So, you know, you have your major information that you absolutely want out there, your phone number, you know, your, your website, your URL, your name, obviously, and your brokerage, I mean, so all of that stuff needs to be, you know, the font needs to be the right size, and it needs to be very visible. So color schemes are very important. Another thing that I highly suggest is, have fun, get creative, you know, us writers, writers, you can tell, you can tell the story of your listing through very, very inexpensively through writers. I mean, yeah, if your listing has, you know, some crazy upgrades in it or whatnot for four or five bucks, you can buy a writer and have that out on the street. It doesn’t cost much and I feel like writers are are somewhat underutilized. Or, you know, get creative. Get funny, you know, I there’s a guy in Wichita that that has free tacos if you buy this house. I mean, some folks like that’s cheesy, but it gets attention. It really does. So I love

D.J. Paris 23:42
that. Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it will it catch someone’s eye? Yes. So I in you know what if you’re a realtor, and you’re like, hey, if you buy this home, I will give you $500 worth of free tacos or whatever, whatever the whatever you’re willing to give away. That’s just fun, and people will talk about it. And that might even get picked up by a local news outlet as well. Yeah, that would also be an opportunity to reach out saying, Hey, I’m a realtor, I just thought I’d do something kind of silly. And if you you know, here’s a picture of my son if you guys want to do a story about it, you could so there’s some there’s even some branding opportunities with that. You know, every every house you have you do some sort of giveaway, every listing you have and you put it on your writer and that would be fun for social media as well to be able to say okay, I just listed this new home Here’s the giveaway we’re doing for this new home. If you know if you buy it

Steve Siciliano 24:37
get entertaining, right make it entertaining, people want to be entertained realize what they’re doing.

D.J. Paris 24:42
And, you know, with respect to signs, how big do you usually recommend? I mean, I know that we all know what traditional sign you know, sign sizes look like, you know, I’m Oh, it’s funny. I walked by here in Chicago, and obviously real estate You know, yard space is limited here, and I don’t even have a yard where I live. So it’d be difficult to put to put a, you know, a nice looking L shape, or wooden type sign or metal sign. And so where I live, you’d have to, I don’t even know how you do it. But, but I see a lot of people making really unfortunate choices with with sometimes, you know, it’s like, they put a sign on a property and it’s just kind of zip tied to a fence or it just, it just doesn’t look that great. And you can see the zip ties and I know you guys do the installation, especially here locally in the Chicagoland area. Do you have any suggestions for just installation tips, you know, not specifically like, oh, do this, don’t do that. But just curious if you know, some some best practices around installation.

Steve Siciliano 25:52
Well around installation, you know, a lot of times you’re right, there’s still signs where there’s no place to put a post. They can very common in Chicago, for instance, where a lot of properties have an iron fence around the front yard, that would block the the post and sign if you put it inside there. So because of the city ordinance, and you can’t have it leaning out over the sidewalk, either, right kind of limited this somehow fascinating that flat against the fence. And that’s the only option you have. Right? I don’t see a lot of them like this, the only way you can probably spruce that up is to put some sort of frame around it. And still hanging on the fence that way. But I think I lean back towards there and in the printing and getting creative with with your brand. And what you have, not just on the listing that doesn’t have a place for a post, but on every listing you have, have a sign that showcases you or you know, catches the eye or intrigues the person something I see a lot of plain, pretty plain signs getting, you know, made and printed. And I think it’s a mistake, it’s maybe a lack of imagination. I know a lot of folks are trying to keep their cost down and they think that you print less, it cost less well. You know, as Darren pointed out with the digital technology nowadays, it really doesn’t matter if you’re printing five words, or 15 or less, it’s, it’s, it’s about the same price. And Less is more is a really good advice. Because it’s more eye catching, I think when you see a couple things that you can, you can grab the information or the name on a fly by and a car doing 2025 miles an hour. And then if you put a book up there to read there, they’re not only going to be able to read it all, they’re not gonna remember any of it, they’re not going to recognize who was even on the side.

D.J. Paris 27:38
I agree I, I do want to give a little bit of praise to accompany that many of our listeners, you might have this brokerage in your local area. And I don’t know if they if they use Lowen or not. So I apologize. If they don’t, they probably have their own sign company. But it for aesthetic purposes. I think if you look at what compass is doing, for our listeners, if you check out or just Google compass signage, they are really good at that minimal sort of style where it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, they have like a black background, some white lettering, it’s very crisp, it’s clean, but it looks good. And you can duplicate that whether you work at Compass or not. And you don’t have to necessarily copy that design and you shouldn’t copy someone else’s design. But to get an idea of branding, and maybe you’re not good at that. Does does. Does Lowen have a design department to assist? Or do they have people they can recommend to assist with the design?

Darin Fyffe 28:39
We do. We have our own design department. Many of the artists have been there for you know, 10 plus years, they, they’ve been around, they they know what looks good, they know what works. And most importantly, it’s free of charge. So so if you’re out there listening to this and you want to, you know rebrand, or upgrade your signage or if you’re a new agent, broker and need branding, give us a call, we’ll walk you through the process, we’ll you know, help you out, give you some ideas. And yeah, we’d love to do it.

D.J. Paris 29:12
Yeah, and you guys are so wonderful. We’ve had it’s funny, we’ve had a lot of sign companies reach out to us over the years, buddy enough. And we always went I don’t know that people are that interested in hearing about signage. And you guys just what you’re doing is so is so interested in exciting because the creativity that can be expressed with signs, you know, there’s a there’s a card company for business cards that sort of fits very similarly to what you guys do, which is called mu and they kind of came around mo they’re really neat company and they said we’re gonna make business cards cool. And they were really kind of one of the first companies to do that. And I love that you guys are doing that on the signage side. So you know you don’t have to look like everyone else. But you can get really creative and I love the fact that Lowen offers free design In services, a lot of the side companies that have reached out to us over the years, yeah, they have a lot of different design options, but they don’t really have a lot of personalized help in that way. So I love that you guys go sort of go that extra step and really help the agents, you know, showcase themselves. And really, whether or not somebody’s foot getting, whether or not your listing is going to get foot traffic, it almost doesn’t matter, because you as the agent can take pictures of your sign and maybe even with the seller, or however you want to do it or just you in front of the sign. And now you can blast that all over social media. So it doesn’t, you don’t have to think of it necessarily as well, gosh, this isn’t a rural part of the country, you know, of my area, no one’s gonna drive by it, no one’s gonna see it, that almost doesn’t matter. Because now you can broadcast it to everyone you know, through Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, and Tik Tok, and it’s so exciting. So you can get really creative. And if no one ever walks by it, it doesn’t matter. Because every all your followers might see it.

Steve Siciliano 31:08
Right, I would, I would make a suggestion to the to the realtors out there is just what you said, uj if if your assigned company doesn’t have those an offer marketing services like loan does, then give a loan a shot. Or if you’re some of the larger brokerages now to have the larger ones have entire marketing departments. But even the small boutique shops will have maybe one person who’s you know, a more of a marketing or design whiz and good with the PowerPoint and whatever other software there is to create things for them. A lot of realtors, you know, because they’re independent contractors, they’re, they’re pretty much you know, there’s, they’re stuck in that groove that they got to do everything themselves, but they may not the there’s people that specialize in some of those things that they can acquire that information or that, that talents, free or, or at no charge or very little charge, and really come up with some great something, you know, what you mentioned about compass as an example, what you’ve probably noticed, and maybe didn’t realize that detail is that those Realtors seem to have a knack and a common common thing added to their signings is a personal logo. So they’ve come up with, you know, an individual Realtor can create his own brand, not just with his name, or her name, or website, but you know, come up with a logo, and there’s, there’s online resources that’ll create things for you for next to nothing. There’s in house marketing departments like low and has, it’ll create something for you. But you know, I think I had one done years back and it’s it’s you go to a professional who knows what they’re doing with that stuff. And really just, you tell them your name, you tell them some general interests, you might have to tell them what you’re trying to promote about yourself. And somehow they come up with a picture figure that represents all of it. And that looks cool. And it’s that great colors. And it just all you got to do is edit up to the corner of your sign or corner of your, your business envelopes, or your or your, your email signature at any place you can put it it’s just a simple add on. And it’s a way of creating a brand for yourself and being recognized and noticed more frequently and easier.

D.J. Paris 33:17
Yeah, 100% agree. And I think this is the time that agents can start to find some, they’re they’re probably it’s we’re getting towards the end of the year that we’re going you know, things are slowing down. It’s the holiday season, we’re wrapping up, we all have a little bit more breathing room than we probably did over the last year. And so now’s the time to think about your marketing and to really think about, you know, how do I want to brand myself and and signage and getting signs made, whether it’s an open house sign an open house signs you can get really creative with as well I know for the building that I live in, it’s a condo building, and it’s a new development. And we now have these these stickers that are on the pavement, you know, right in front of where are our places, pushing people like, hey, go check out the model home by walking this way. I mean, you can do all sorts of really cool things, you know, obviously making sure that it’s in accordance with whatever the homeowners association or the neighborhood association allows, but you could do some really fun stuff for open houses forever for listings for just sold. Lots of cool things you can do. And and lo and can help with all that before. I want to ask you guys a question. And then I’m going to pause for a quick sponsor break. But But I want you to think about this during the sponsor break, which is if you were a new agent, or or an agent that’s just starting to really build their business. What advice would you have for them with respect to when when they get these listings, you know, just any sort of dues, or any sort of what you would recommend? For, you know, a sign. So so bear with us just a second and we’re going to, we’re going to answer that question in just a moment. We want to pause for a moment to talk about our sponsor follow up boss now, after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country, you know which CRM is talked about by more than more than any other CRM by our guests. That of course is follow up boss. Now, 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 uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar real estate business in six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 different systems so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, they have seven day a week support. So you’ll 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 for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial. Now that’s twice as much time as they give everybody else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. That’s how competent they are, you’re going to want to give them your credit card because you’re going to fall in love with their CRM so much, but you don’t have to give it to them up front. But only if you use this special link which is follow up boss.com forward slash real again, follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial follow up like a boss with follow up boss. So Steven Darren, I know the obvious answer is yes. You want to put a sign on a property. I am curious to hear I wanted to ask about as a sale progresses, as a listing progresses rather newly listed under contract just closed. Curious to to hear your opinion on the importance of updating the sign actually. So I’m changing the question slightly updating the sign as the home progresses. I personally think it’s a great idea. Because it catches the eye up all of a sudden I’m walking by and I go ooh, under contract, I guess that homes about to sell. I as a consumer, I’m attracted to updated sort of stuff on on signs, you know, updated status is curious to hear your guys’s thoughts.

Darin Fyffe 37:21
I agree with that. I think it also makes the agent look better. If if they’re updating their signage, it makes them seem as if you know, they’re they’re a closer, you know, they’re getting the property sold fast. It’s it’s almost as marketing yourself, hey, this this property Wow, it was just listed yesterday and it’s already under contract, it makes you look good. And then a very, in my opinion, especially where I’m from the real estate markets very, very saturated. Especially right now with with how crazy it is. So you have to do whatever you can do to stand out, get creative, you know, stay on top of your signage, as you mentioned, by updating it stand out, you know, brag on yourself, promote yourself. So yes, that’s it definitely does that when you when you say you know, under contract or sold. So, Steve, you have any thoughts on that?

Steve Siciliano 38:20
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s definitely a good idea to promote the when you do accept the contract. Because the timing is noticed by the people driving by they’re on regular basis. They know that that signs went up for a week, or they know what that signs been up for six months, but somehow they know, they don’t they might even read it every day. But they know for some reason that they’ve seen that sign often enough. And in some of the realtors, I would probably suggest to and you mentioned DJ, maybe newer realtors, if you’re gonna be in this business, get your name out there. I see time and time again. A lot of realtors just putting up the generic office panel which is fine if you’re going to do that or while you’re waiting to maybe have some signs designed for yourself. But get that get a name writer up there with you. I mean it’s great to promote your brand as Bureau I’m sorry, your brokerage house. But you need to promote yourself especially

D.J. Paris 39:14
your clock fester clients don’t care about your firm they care about you.

Steve Siciliano 39:19
And you know some do some built with it. You know they’re not Yeah, you don’t want them just calling Coble banker, for example. You want to call DJ DJ sold that house in two days that under contract writer was up there to do days. I’m calling that guy see what he’s got to say when I’m ready to sell my house and updating

D.J. Paris 39:35
your miter. Yeah, it seems such a great idea. And Darren and Steve, thanks for those answers. Such a great idea too. Because now and again you have to always think about branding is if you get an opportunity to put a under contract sign or just closed or just listed you now have another opportunity to grab your phone, turn it around, hit that you know record button for video and say it record now an Instagram story or a Facebook story or just a post saying, I am so excited, we just put this on the on. And I’m just about to put my, you know, to update my sign here with just, you know, just accepted an offer or whatever that is a great that creates great content for social media. So even though it’s this physical thing that exists in the real world, and the people who drive by might appreciate it, especially neighbors. You know, it also gives you an opportunity to do create some social media content,

Steve Siciliano 40:31
right. And I wasn’t it was common this past year. So as we get installations up very fast each day, we actually promise it right on our website, it’s going to be done in two business days or less. There has been a countless number of times that before I can get them up the thing assault, there are selling them, you know, because we have this private listing network now. So they can do a little bit of pre advertising before it’s actually publicly advertised, which helps. But regardless, it’s been the order comes in today. And before I get it out tomorrow, these houses were selling. Now, some agents would call me and say, great news at an under contract writer to that thing, when you put it up, other agents would call in and say, you know, I’m going to cancel that because I already sold it. And that’s crazy. I shake my head. And I just think that is the best advertisement. And most economical advertisement you could have, you’re going to put up a side effect. Purposely and intentionally delay it, put the sign up today, put the under contract, right or up tomorrow, or in two days. I mean, now make it look like you did something and make sure it’s no, because if you don’t put the sign up, yeah, some people are going to know it. But boy, a lot more would know, when they see the sign go up and they see the under contract, right or up and the next day or two,

D.J. Paris 41:49
I know that I would be so impressed if all of a sudden, I see a new listing go up. And then like you said, the next I’m a neighbor and I see a new listing, oh, they’re neighbors of selling their home. And then the next day under contract, I want to talk to that realtor. How did you do that? Because, and and and and so for all of our listeners, you know, thinking about this from marketing perspective, you now have an opportunity to go. And look, there’s lots of ways to do it if you’re confident enough. And I’m not suggesting this is the best strategy, but it could be do some door knocking talk to the neighbors say Hey, I didn’t mean to bug you. But just wanted to let you know I’m working with selling selling their home. And not so much to brag because you can all always say, you know, instead of asking for business, which some people are uncomfortable doing, saying, hey, just so if you see me around the neighborhood, I just want you to know I’m working with selling so didn’t want you to think I’m a prowler, you know, you can be funny about it. But you could also send mailers, if you don’t want to do it in person or, you know, leave something on people’s doorsteps and say, Hey, didn’t notice it didn’t know if you noticed, but so and so I’m working with them on their home, you know, and if you ever have any questions about your the value of your home, we’d love to chat with you. So you know, there’s so much opportunity. But if you don’t have that sign, it becomes a lot harder to penetrate that neighborhood. Because right out of sight out of mind, people don’t see a sign, they might not even know that so the neighbors are moving. Because you know, I know I wouldn’t know if a home next to me goes on the market and I’m in this business, the only way I know is that there’s a sign because I don’t have alerts set up like that. So guys, signage is so much more important than just for that specific property, it is your brand. And you are such an opportunity here to really get your name out there. And you can be creative and fun. And Lowen is the company to use to get creative and fun and to get it installed quickly. So guys, let’s just talk very quickly about what Lowen offers to make sure that our audience has a good understanding. And by the way, again, if you are in the local Chicago area, loyal signs can take care of all of this, they are a part of Lowen and they can do the install as well. But let’s talk about Lowen and just kind of what they offer. So if you don’t mind just letting our listeners know what exactly you guys provide.

Darin Fyffe 44:07
Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, first of all, we’ve been around for 71 years we’ve been around amazing. Yeah, than any other side real estate, signage manufacturing company in the United States. You know, we the biggest thing that I think separates us from everybody else, is that we manufacture everything ourselves. We don’t buy container loads of goods from other countries, bring them in, mark them up and resell them. We don’t do that. We literally have metal fabrication facilities. We have our own powder coating line. We do everything ourselves and we have very, very high strict quality standards. So we know that it’s going to be right every time. That’s in my opinion. That’s that’s the most important thing about Lowen. We’re a Midwestern company, we We have Midwestern roots, and we are very fanatical about customer service. You know, if you call into Lowen, somebody’s going to answer the phone, we don’t believe in the, you know, the robots answering the phone, we want to talk to you. And we’re going to answer the phone every time. So and also, you know, we really pride ourselves on being tech savvy, you know, if you want a custom, back end web portal, or some API integration to make your lives easier, we’re more than happy to help you with that. And we have a very, very good team of, you know, web developers, that can do do all of that stuff for you. So, in a nutshell, and honestly, quality, you know, we the founder, Mike Lowen, you know, we, he took a lot of pride in it, and, you know, his son now owns the company, and he carries on that, you know, that that huge quest for having the best quality in the industry. And we’re really proud of it. And, you know, Steve, you know, he can attest to this, you know, he was a broker for a long time. And he used many other companies other than Lowen. And he’s told me many times that our, our quality is, is head and shoulders above everybody else’s. So you know, that’s it, you know, I, if you’re listening, give us a give us a shot, I’m very confident that you will be impressed with not only our service, but but the quality of your signage, and you know, what it, it’s an investment, you know, it’s a marketing tool, it’s an investment, so you want to get as much ROI as you’re out of your investments as possible. Signage is no different. I mean, if you’re going to spend money on something, you know, the old, the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. And that holds true with real estate, signage, as well. So you may pay a couple, couple more dollars for something, but you’re gonna get a lot more lifestyle. So

D.J. Paris 46:54
100%, could not agree more. And I know that if I’m a listing agent, and I’m talking about all of the different ways, I’m going to help a seller, you know, market their home, sell it for the highest price, I’m going to mention, hey, this might sound sort of trivial, but I’m gonna explain why it’s important, we’re gonna get you a really nice looking sign out front, because we want people who who drive by or walk by to know that this is a high quality home, that that it’s being represented by a high quality agent, and we want to attract, you know, I would talk about that, and I am partnered with low and signs, because they are the best. It sounds like maybe a homeowner wouldn’t care about that. But I know, as a homeowner, that if I was interviewing realtors, and I was saying, well tell me about your marketing strategy, and say, Well, I have partners, you know, for flyers, brochures, and I also have a sign partner, I want to talk about that for a moment, you know, and explain what we can do. And it’s not just that it’s going to sit in the front of your property, I’m going to promote it like crazy on social media, I’m gonna stand in front of it and make little fun videos. I mean, this could be part of the listing presentation. It sounds sort of silly, but it’s not. It’s really, really important. And it could be what separates you from all the other realtors says, oh, yeah, we’re gonna put a sign in the yard. And yeah, that’s what everyone else is gonna say. You could say, here’s what I’m going to do with that sign. I’m going to do some cool fun marketing stuff. And we’re going to blast it out on social, and it’s going to look really great. And I got the best company on the planet. They’ve been around 71 years. They know what looks cool. I mean, again, it sounds like does it sell or care about that? Well, if you if you explain it, they will care about that.

Steve Siciliano 48:39
Right. And you, you probably know, but if a realtor hasn’t picked up yet, on how important those that sign is in the front yard to the sellers, then I don’t know who they’re working with. Because I on a regular basis, I get calls, not from the agent, or from the agent, of course, but not from the agent who wants it and it’s just you know, three feet to the left or the side of an angle. It’s the it’s the homeowners, they want that thing up. The second they decide they want to sell and and are ready to go. They want that post up that day. They want it to look and clean and sharp. They want it straight and narrow, and they want it and they want it up right away. I think as technology has progressed and less so much of it has become you know, advertising has gone from paper to internet and then social media and all sorts of good stuff that I think that things go second be electronic. We’re not gonna make posts electronic you can’t do that. It’s still it’s still the first step. So the first signal the first red flag goes up when a listing is active and ready to sell the signs up in the yard. That’s how you started then started. That’s the kickoff from all the for all the marketing

D.J. Paris 49:51
is really important, which I’ll do with it. Go ahead I’m

Steve Siciliano 49:55
sorry. And one of the one of the reasons why and I know This as a realtor for all the years because I did that, but now I see it even exponentially in my clients that are now the realtors I’ve worked with for so long that it’s important to have that clean post in that in that sharp looking, color and unscratched. So one of the first things we did was reinvest in a lot of inventory, the posts that we use are much higher quality than, than some of the posts that are out there. Ours are approved to have to be produced by Lowen. But they’re aluminum, they’re powder coated, they have somewhat of a shiny luster to them, they’ve got beveled end caps, it’s just a sharper looking post and it’s it stays looking good longer. It doesn’t rust, doesn’t scratches, easy, it doesn’t warp or chip. And for that reason, you know, we we make their posts or make the sign look better, because it’s designed to stay stare straight and narrow, and it looks sharp, as good as newly painted.

D.J. Paris 51:04
And guys, for everyone listening, Look, the bottom line is low, it’s just the best out there. So I we rarely recommend really anything on our show because we try to stay product neutral. And we have lots of wonderful sponsors that we really enjoy. But lo and truly is an exceptional sign company. They’ve been around longer than anyone. They’re incredibly professional, they understand that if they don’t deliver for you, you’re gonna go back to your other sign company, they know that and they want to earn your business. We want you to support them, they support us on our show. We are big believers in them. So everyone give them an opportunity to give them a shot. Reach out to them. If you’re outside of the Chicagoland area, just go to low insights.com LOWE en signs.com. If you’re within the Chicagoland area, the the local version of them is loyal signs. So go to loyal signs.com If you’re here, Chicago, local agent and give them an opportunity to earn the rest of your business. Guys, is that important. You want a nice looking sign I was just just next door to our office here. I really probably shouldn’t say this because people could probably figure out who it is. One of the very best agents in the Chicagoland area has a listing. And I love this agent. And the sign is chipped. And it’s not a big deal. And this agent probably doesn’t know it’s chipped. It’s not her fault. It just happened. And it’s been chipped for about three weeks now. And I noticed that every time I walked by now I work here so I walked by it every day, and it sort of bugs me. And it shouldn’t bug and this agent’s awesome. And I’m not trying to disparage them, they probably don’t know, it’s Jeff. But I think you know, you want to get a high quality sign. And you Lowen is going to take care of you. So give them an opportunity Guys look, they support our show, support them, give them a shot. I trust I trust in Lowen. And I believe that they will take great care of you and your client. And if you’re here locally in Chicago, us loyal because they’ll gonna get it up for here within 48 hours. And we know how quickly things go. So it’s important for speed speed to lead, as they say, right, so I want everyone to visit Lo and signs.com and if you’re here in Chicago, visit loyal signs.com They can do everything for you, guys. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for being such a supporter of our of our podcast. We’re huge fans of yours. And, and we now I need to evaluate the signage we have at our brokerage to attract more realtors. So I might be reaching out to you guys to come up with some ideas of what we can do signage wise to attract other agents. Yeah, I know you do. So on behalf of our audience, we want to thank Darren and Steve for coming on the show. These guys are busy, they’ve got a huge massive company. And they took time out of their day to be on our show. We appreciate that. And also on behalf of Deron, Steve and myself, I want to thank the audience for continuing to listen to support our show. And I’m just asked that everyone do one thing outside of giving Lowen an opportunity. Please do also tell a friend about this podcast. Maybe an agent who’s new in the business and doesn’t really understand signage or somebody that needs to take their science to the next level, send them a link to this episode. You can always send them directly over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is stream live there. Or they can also follow us on Facebook where all of our episodes [email protected] forward slash keeping it real pod. There’s an episode section on the Facebook page. Every single episode we’ve ever done is there. Steve and Darren, thank you so much for being on the show. huge fans of you guys. And I want to just tell our audience give low in a shot. They will not let you down. They’re awesome.

Darin Fyffe 54:47
Thank you, DJ. Yeah, it’s our pleasure. Appreciate it.

D.J. Paris 54:49
Thanks, guys. And we’ll see everyone on the next episode.

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

Ryan and DJ discuss how you can use negative news stories to reassure you clients and provide value. Ryan also discusses why you shouldn’t always see a property as an investment. As the new year approaches, Ryan discusses what agents should do at this period and how to plan their next year. Next, Ryan discusses why he thinks that going to the office is the best way for agents to be successful and why working from home doesn’t work. Last, Ryan wants to remind everyone of the importance of their “WHY”.

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].

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by show Ami. Show AMI is the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to get buyers into homes without you being the one to show it. Now we’ve all had situations where clients wanted to see properties at the most inconvenient time or in a location that was difficult for us to show. Now there’s an easy way to find another licensed agent who will show the home on your behalf for a small fee. You keep the client you keep the commission, you keep your commitments. Now show AMI is truly the Uber for realtors connecting busy Realtors with local agents who have time to show your clients the properties they want without taking any part of your commission. And if you’d like to be one of show armies featured agents that realtors can hire to have you help with their showings, you can sign up on their website at no cost. So whether you’re an agent who wants some help with showings, or you’re an agent that wants to make some money helping doing showings, show AMI is the app to use install show AMI on Apple or Android devices or simply visit their website at show ami.com That’s sh O W A mi.com sh O W ami.com to learn more and now on to our episode

Welcome to 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 today is our monthly coaching moments with Ryan de April series. Now if you’re not familiar with Ryan, or if you’re just new to the show, Ryan comes on every month to give our listeners and our viewers a coaching moment and a coaching session. So let me tell you about Ryan Ryan de April is a progressive thought leader focused on providing for his agents and staff at depot properties. His strengths are his motivational skills, his coaching style, and his dedication to training. He has 14 offices throughout Chicagoland and he also has offices in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida with hundreds and hundreds of top producers. Disciple properties is really a coaching company with eight strategic coaches who work week in and week out with every agent individually focused on business planning, coaching, and accountability 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 current firm, check out D APR properties, visit D APR properties.com. And welcome once again, Ryan.

Ryan D’Aprile 2:40
Hey, DJ, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure being with you, again,

D.J. Paris 2:43
pleasure being with you, we should also mention that you have other companies. So we we aren’t necessarily just talking to real estate agents, you also have a lending institution Midwest lending. So I know this podcast gets gets listened to by by some of your loan officers. So if there are any loan officers listening, shout out here because again, a lot of what you talk about is really applicable against across all sorts of sales, you know, jobs.

Ryan D’Aprile 3:10
It is I’ve spoken to many companies and help them sell hedge funds. I’ve actually, in financial planning institutions, I’ve actually been a guest to speak to their sales force. Yes, I we have a mortgage company, I have an insurance company and the principles of philosophies that we teach are the same across the board. So yeah, so that’s, that’s it’s, the more things change, the more they stay the same as what I tell everybody. And the principles are really, that are identical, quite honestly, it’s a process. I think it’s more of a system than it is an art, there’s a little bit of art in it. But it’s, it’s really being aware of what your craft is and what it is that you’re doing and then improving on it day in and day out.

D.J. Paris 3:52
I also think too, I think what you said is really important. So we’re talking about process. And I like to call them fundamentals, because it’s always it seems to be that there is no magic bullet to becoming successful in this industry. Or at least if there is I haven’t found it. But the fundamentals or the processes are great. And you mentioned that there’s a little bit of art to it. What I found so, so exciting about figuring out somebody’s processes, what what is going to be successful for them is that frees up a lot of their time to where they now can focus on the art artsy sort of side of it, that putting their personality and because their systems and processes are so in place that allows them to have more time to focus on sort of the personality side

Ryan D’Aprile 4:34
of it. Yeah, and I think what you need to do is you need to process and systematize how you interact with your network. And I tell everybody is like, I’ll draw on a whiteboard, network and drive and I’m writing right next to each other. And I’ll ask people, What can I coach to? And a lot of people think it’s Dr. Like, I can coach you to network and country to grow network, and I can’t coach Dr. And that’s, that’s the number one thing for anybody who’s listening whether you’re alive Under, you’re an insurance agent, your real estate agent. I truly in my heart of hearts believe success is easy. 80% of it is just showing up. That’s a cliche for a reason, because it’s true. And you can’t coach drive, you can’t coach, Coach hunger. But if you’ve got the drive, you got the hunger, then all you gotta do is follow a system. And every year that goes by it compounds, and it gets easier and easier.

D.J. Paris 5:25
It does, because you have a bigger supply of previous clients in the wake of your business that are satisfied and happy and know like and trust you and then refer business. And I, to all of our listeners, if you’re new to this, this series that we do monthly with Ryan, he’s a big believer in having systems around communication. So making sure that your clients are getting touched every single month in different ways. And one of the ways sometimes I know, you know, we get feedback from from listeners who say, Hey, I and not necessarily because of what you’ve said, but they say hey, how do I stay in touch with with my sphere of influence? What are some of the things I should be doing? And you’ve touched on those one thing that we might not have touched on yet is, and I learned this back when I was a financial adviser, they would say read what your clients are reading. And so I saw an article today on CNN that, you know, whatever people’s feelings about CNN, are I, I just happen to be on the CNN website. And I saw this article about

Ryan D’Aprile 6:25
finding that you had to say that in today’s age, you have to say, Yep, I get you,

D.J. Paris 6:29
you have to say that. And I don’t have any particular just happened yet, but it was about the possibility of a housing crisis or a housing bubble that possibly could be bursting. And there’s different. In this article, they said, Hey, there’s no consensus on this. And lots of people say everything’s fine. But as interest rates, maybe go, you know, up to now 4%, or rather, lending rates go up to maybe 4% or so, there may be in a price correction. And anyway, these are the kinds of headlines that I don’t know, they got my attention, and they probably get your clients attention. And so I see it as an opportunity to reach out and do one of your touches and say, Hey, you might be seeing some news about this. But I’m curious on on your thoughts about how to use, you know, and I don’t want to call it a negative sort of Article, because I was the intention of it wasn’t to be negative. But But that’s gonna scare a lot of people. And I’m just curious on how you might take that information and, and reassure clients or sort of give them an action. Sure.

Ryan D’Aprile 7:30
Yeah. Well, so I would tell my clients and I’d tell, you know, agents and loan officers, anybody in the back, of course, there’s a market correction coming. There always has been there always will be it’s cyclical. And so and I would say that directly to a client, and then I’d get to what the most important thing again, the reason why, right, all these quote unquote disruptors to our industry who’ve been around since the early 2000s, that, again, you’ve heard me say this on the show before, they’ve lost quarters of you know, hundreds of millions of dollars year in a year out working for free, trying to take us out of the marketplace, okay, and have yet to be unsuccessful at it. All right, is because of the emotional intelligence aspect of our business and what we need. And if you do not know why your buyer or your seller are buying or selling, then you’re irrelevant. And, and what I mean by that is, if a buyer said to me, Well, Ryan, a market correction is going to come. Do you think that’s true? And I’d say, of course, market correction is going to come. Well, why are you buying this house? Let’s have that conversation. Sure. Are you buying this house because it’s a part of your stock portfolio? Because I believe, you know, just like Kawasaki is a cow psyche Robert Kiyosaki, Kiyosaki, and I apologize if he ever hears this and apologize, I mean, I’m an idiot. Um, but, you know, your home is not an asset. It’s a

D.J. Paris 9:06
low I could not agree more. And I know there would be there’s a lot of pushback, but I always love this idea of assets, assets, shouldn’t lose money on a regular basis, which of course, it meaning not lose money, but but cost, you know, be at be costly on a monthly basis, upkeep etc. And it doesn’t generate income either. It’s only Oh, it’s a liability. It’s an asset the day you sell it, that’s about it.

Ryan D’Aprile 9:29
Well, it is, I mean, it’s an asset that they somebody else starts paying for it. That’s, that’s when it’s an asset and you continue to own it. And so my point is, is, look, my wife and I have a home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and we bought it 17 years ago, okay. I mean, we were 2829 year old kids with a newborn and we bought the lake home. And the reason why is because we wanted our children to have that lake life experience. Now, up until recently, until COVID, quite honestly, let’s say I paid $500,000 for the house, which is what I paid for the house. So I paid $500,000 for the home. Okay. And up until two years ago, you know that home was worth.

Unknown Speaker 10:13
I know I don’t

Ryan D’Aprile 10:14
$500,000 Yeah, exactly. Okay. did two years ago, you know, after 15 years of ownership, it was worth $500,000, I think I’d put $100,000 down on it. And over 15 years, I paid off 100 grand, but I pride paid in our $150,000 in interest. That’s not a good investment. Right. But I would never, I would not do it any other way ever again. Because someday I’m not going to be on this planet. Someday my children will be adults. Unfortunately, my oldest just turned an adult and she’s still my baby, say two years old. And I bought the summer home for the quality of life. You, if you were to talk to me back then 28 years old, you were and you were my real estate agent, which I was back then you wouldn’t know what my why is. And my why is, well, I don’t care what the market does. Here’s where today is I want in on the home. And I plan on living here for the next 15 years. And so

D.J. Paris 11:07
you really treat it like almost like a primary residence, even though it isn’t your primary residence. It’s just hey, this is this is where we live when we’re not at home.

Ryan D’Aprile 11:15
Hey, the same story, you know, from my home in Western Springs. Okay, I can tell you, I’m probably, you know, you know, you know, I live you live in the homes where you know, that I wouldn’t call McMansions. But these beautiful homes come up, you know, every three months, there’s a brand new, you know, home being built gorgeous, in my neighborhood, you know, million multi million dollar home being built. And, and my home’s value, you know, it’s not like when my mom and dad bought in 75, for 100 grand, and they sold in 2010. For $500,000. I think those days are gone, just because of how wealthier society is, and how fashion and trends change so much. And so the home that I’ve purchased in 2010 in Western Springs, okay. And then the amount of money I’ve put into that home, could I get the money out of it? No. But does that mean I would do different? No, you know, we’re dealing in residential real estate, I had a wife and three kids. And, you know, people are born and people die, people get married, and people get divorced, people relocate. And for our listeners here, when this market correction comes, and it’s going to come in like five years from now, I don’t know when it’s going to come. But it’s going to come, the transactions are not going to stop, you know, I cut my teeth, my third year in the business 2008. Alright, as it was the Great Recession, and 2008 to 2011. That’s like a broken record. But I crushed it during those years. I absolutely crushed it. And we had the great recession going on. So be apprised know what’s going on, read what your customers are reading. But again, and our industry. And I truly believe that a loan officers need to be able to do this just as much as a real estate agent. Because the same is true for loan officers so much emotional intelligence and balance you have to work with your, with your buyers on this, you’re gonna know why they’re doing what they’re doing, and then be able to relate them and then bring them back to that why.

D.J. Paris 13:27
Yeah, I think you’re right. And that that’s the same thing I did. So I started reading this article, and I was like, Oh my gosh, of course, correction. I just bought a home and then I went, Well, what do I care, you know, I’m probably not going to be there in three or four years, I don’t have any control over this anyway. Plus, it’s not an investment, it’s where I live, and I’m going to have to live somewhere else after that. And it’s I just, I just, um, but But again, I had to talk myself down, and you know, have an opportunity to reach out to your clients and say, Hey, I just want to, you know, you might be seeing some, some stories about this. And I want to, you know, sort of make sure that you’re how, you know, talk check with how you’re feeling about where you’re living, and you know, and just it’s an opportunity to connect.

Ryan D’Aprile 14:09
Absolutely. 100%.

D.J. Paris 14:12
So, Ryan, some thoughts on because you coach agents, you’ve coached top producers, you coach new agents, you know, gosh, you guys have such an impressive, you know, set of agents at the April properties here in the Chicagoland and other states. What are you telling agents to do for the last two months here of the year?

Ryan D’Aprile 14:30
Yeah, well, actually, it’s a great segue because we have a CRM that we use, it’s proprietary that we built and our CRM actually shows you what your business is going to look like next year. And it times it out. So for individuals right now, as we’re coming into November, we have 60 days left of the year. I do say that the year is over. But if you click on your prospects, and you go to the timing that we have, which ours is cool Closing next year cold, not certainly going to hire me warm closing this calendar year, you look at cool. You I see agents with 5 million 10 million $20 million in leads from primarily their network, or their network referring them. Okay. I had a coachman with another agent regarding online leads, I’m going to talk about that for a second. But this is the time and you need to have a CRM, you need to be tracking this information. And most real estate agents, I feel fail at this because they don’t spend time working on their business and looking at this data. But anybody that we’re working with with our CRM, they’re looking at that bank account of business for next year. And they are looking at their data last contact, what was the touch? What are they doing, and the biggest thing that I’m always working on is grabbing somebody’s bank account and be like, Hey, get out of your active clients tab, get out of your under contract Clients tab, look to your left versus prospects, look at this bank of $14 million of business that you think you’re going to have next year. And look at that you haven’t talked to these three people since July, these four since March, like you are going to be leaving a lot of money on the table right now. If you’re not getting prepared, right now for the string market. And you already know those individuals who they are. Right? You already they’ve already identified them in your CRM. Now you need to be making the frequent reach out touch base, touching up with them, keeping it personal, making it about them, understanding their why. And if you don’t, you’ll be replaced. And then they just walk into an open house and find something or their neighbor down the street happens to be a real estate agent that shows them around. That’s where most people lose a lot of money in this business.

D.J. Paris 16:40
Yeah, and these touches can be can be phone calls, they can be text messages, they can be emails, they could be replying to or commenting on someone’s social media posts. You

Ryan D’Aprile 16:50
know, I think yeah, exactly. I think direct messaging and social media, I try to tell people don’t think of commenting on a social media as a, a touch. My birthday was the other day, I was sick as a dog under the covers. And, and I had it for like three or four days in a row. But I think I had like 400 happy birthdays, I didn’t even see one of them. Right? I tried, I couldn’t keep up. And it plus I had aches and the chills, was the worst. I think I got that rhinovirus. And everybody was getting, I got tested for everything, but it was a virus. Regardless. You know, a direct message is equivalent to a text message or a phone call. So your your follow your reach out, should be a phone call, or a text message, or a or a direct message via you know, whatever it is Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, however, whatever social media channel that your, your client, your network uses, right, you have to use them all and adapt to it. And direct message and don’t fall in the trap of by, you know, writing on their wall. Oh, so cute. You know, the dog you just posted right writing that on the wall. That’s not gonna You gotta actually got to connect with them, and try to create a dialogue.

D.J. Paris 18:07
Yeah, and I have always thought LinkedIn gets really underutilized for this. Because just today, for one, one of the little companies I have an ownership interest in, I guess it was my work anniversary, which I had no idea. And I started getting just a handful of happy work anniversary. I’m like, I didn’t even know it was my work anniversary. And those didn’t really matter to me. But I thought, boy, if I really want if I was a salesperson, and I wanted my business for whatever, I would figure out a way to direct message me or to find me. I mean, I’m not easy. I’m not hard to find, send me a phone, you know, send me a text shoot me and say, Hey, man, just saw that you, you know, work anniversaries. You know, maybe that’s not such a big deal. But but you could say when somebody starts a new position when they get promoted, I just saw one of my friends at Zillow just got promoted, and I shot her a quick test matches like, hey, saw you got promoted. That’s amazing. And she was like, Wow, thanks. You’re the only person that texted me about it other than her coworkers. So, you know, and it meant a lot to her. And we’re just buddies. But I thought you know, that’s, that’s a great opportunity. LinkedIn actually tells you, when people have these major work milestones.

Ryan D’Aprile 19:11
I was having a conversation with a broker owner the other day down in Florida, and they went virtual, probably 3040 agents. And he made a great comment to me, he said, and they’ve seen a decline in sales, right? And he said to me, you know, you’re productive until you’re not, right. It’s like, wow, that just says a lot. What he was saying is, they went virtual, right? It was working until it doesn’t work. And now you’re going the other way. And I tell every person that works in our organization that, you know, we have these offices and we’re opening up more offices, because you gotta get out of your house. Yeah, you got to you’ve got to work on your business. You know, I started my My career as a real estate agent in 2004, you know, five, late 2004 2005. And I had an office, I went to 2021, right? How many every year years later is 16 years later, I still go to the office every single day. And I’m telling you real estate agents, like, you guys get the hell out of your basement, this virtual stuff, I don’t think it’s healthy, I understand there’s an element of where you can do it. But you need to run your business you, you don’t get paid in real estate, you don’t, you don’t come to a real estate brokerage, you don’t get a salary, you don’t have a manager, you are starting your own business. And the biggest thing I can tell you now that in November and December, what’s coming in for next year, get into the office, when there’s nothing to do get into the office, get into your CRM we have it’s called the dashboard, get into your dashboard, we’re kind of minimum three days a week, just like any other business owner who wants to keep their doors open, does. And, you know, if you were to try buy a storefront of a small business, and see that the lights were out, and the door was locked for days, out of the out of the week, right? You’d say so that guy is gonna go out of business, they’re not even open for business. Yet real estate agents stay home, they get in their habits, they work from home, and you know, damn, well what’s happening there, they’re doing the dry cleaning, they’re talking about their active deals, right, but they’re not working on their business. And you know, that’s going to catch up to you, and you’re productive until you’re not. And that’s where the peaks and the valleys of this business occur. And people got to pull themselves out of the valley. And you don’t need to if you could stay consistent, and get into your office three, four days a week and work on your business, one to two hours a day.

D.J. Paris 21:43
I’ve tried many times over the last Well, I would say 15 years to work from home. I’ve tried, I want to be able to do that. Because, boy, it just seems so great. It seems so efficient. I can’t do it. And maybe there’s that rare person that somehow can, but I don’t know how anyone’s more more effective and productive at home. So you know, even even, even if I worked at a company like exp where there aren’t physical offices, and you know, assuming I could afford it, I’d rent an office somewhere go to regional sir. Yeah, place like,

Ryan D’Aprile 22:21
yeah, you do you have to, you know, and and just ask yourself, is it working? And if it’s working great. And is it not working? If it’s not working? Are you working from home, your kitchen, table, your phone, in your basement, go to a place that’s going to get you into another mindset that’s going to have you focus on working on your business. And it’s nice to be an organization where you’re next to other top producers. I tell all my agents Yeah, you know, when I go to office office, see all the usual suspects. And it’s a top selling real estate agents there all the time. Hey, DJ, don’t you have a five o’clock arts that?

D.J. Paris 22:55
I do? I’m gonna I wanted to end with just one more thought. And yes, so thanks for reminding me my of my obligations. Because I had forgotten we were I was having so much fun with this call. And what I was going to say as is and get your thoughts on is you were talking about those producers you have who are going into their dashboard in your CRM and, and sort of seeing the most important maybe part of that outside of your active clients outside of the customer service stuff you have to do day in day out to close deals, but looking at your contact list your sphere of influence and saying maybe the most important metric there is when’s the last time you know, last touch, last last communication and maybe just everyone listening, make a pact that you will have no people in that database that doesn’t hear from you every single month in some capacity and 2022. And just see what happens by the end of 2022. I would be shocked if you don’t get more referrals, or more of those people in your database use you or both. And you know, I’m just using once a month as as just a

Ryan D’Aprile 24:00
no, it’s once a month. That’s the way to do it. And I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve never ever seen anybody do it, and it not work for them. But I’ve seen people not do it. And they struggle. And I’m like, Why do you make this complicated? Why? Why is this complicated? And when I’m ever in a room of people, right? Say it’s 2020 people, right coaching, I’ll say 20 percentage, which comes to four, only four of you are going to do what I’m telling you to do. 16, you are going to get entertainment, what entertainment is education, with no action equals entertainment. So I’ll be your clown for two hours. But there’s four of you here who’s going to hear what I’m telling you, you’re gonna laugh at it. And you’re the these are the ones who can make 150 300 $450,000 a year. And it’s like a Greek tragedy, but it’s the 8020 rule and you can’t get you can’t get away from it. So I tried to bring everywhere like look at who’s going to be the 20% they’re going to walk out of the room and do what you just said for the rest of the year for the year 2022. Sadly, in that group of 20 there’ll be four and those are your top of the top. And what those four did what’s not hard. It was not hard, but you can’t draw, you can’t coach drive. You can’t coach drive, you can teach and show discipline over time. And if somebody’s willing to do that, and they get the right activities, they’ll become discipline, and that this just becomes autopilot for them.

D.J. Paris 25:21
Yeah, boy, it’s so well said and I will leave with one other idea that this I’m stealing this from my our guest Ryan, but it is if you are struggling with Drive, if that’s something you probably and Ryan, I think would agree with this, as you probably haven’t, or maybe you’ve you haven’t well defined, or maybe you did well defined this and forgot it. But you probably haven’t well defined your why, like Ryan has a very specific y for all of his different businesses. And they involve his family and the feelings he’s going to have with interacting with them and being able to have freedom to do certain things based on the success of his businesses. And he knows his why. He’s, you’ve talked about it many, many times here on the show. You know, if you need to write it on a post it and put it on your mirror, it sounds silly, but remind yourself of your why that will help I think give you a little bit more strength when you have those mornings were like I just don’t want to do anything.

Ryan D’Aprile 26:16
Yeah, and ask yourself how, how many hours of the day was I? Was I unconscious? I mean, literally, was I just not conscious of my actions, my behaviors? I mean, if you could be conscious and you could take conscious action, deliberate practice. Like oh god forget her name. Angela Duckworth said deliberate practice. If you could have deliberate practice one or two hours a day. I mean, that’s, that’s just to compound for you. And again, it’s easy, but it’s a choice. And most people unfortunately, horseshit choices, just terrible, terrible choices with their time. But success in No, no doubt, success is a choice. Either choose to average choose not to through your efforts.

D.J. Paris 27:04
Awesome. Well, this is a great place to wrap up this episode, we will see Ryan on next month’s episode of our coaching moments. We’re so grateful to Ryan, he is the one he’s probably the busiest person I know. And he takes time out of his incredible the busy schedule every month to be on our show. So please, if you live in any of these states, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Florida and you are like you know, I am not getting great coaching and support from my existing firm or you just want to see what else is out there. Check out D APR Properties, go to D APR properties.com. They just have hundreds of top producers. They’re amazing Ryan coaches as well. And he the coaches he hires I’ve seen I’ve visited his his headquarters, it’s just beyond impressive. So definitely check out Depot properties.com. Also, if you’re a loan officer and looking for see what other firms are out there, check check them out. Midwest lending is the name of the loan, the lending institution. So everyone go out there visit Depot properties.com. And on behalf of the audience want to thank Ryan for his time today. He always brings great content to us. And on behalf of Ryan and myself, we want to thank the the audience and our listeners and viewers for continuing to support our show. I think we’re at about 310 episodes. We have more listeners now than we ever did. That’s thanks to you guys telling a friend about the show. Please send this coaching moment episode to one other either loan officer that could use a little motivation boost or strategy boost or another realtor that you know that could benefit from hearing from Ryan and send them a link to our website, so you can send them right over to keeping it real pod.com all of our episodes are there. And also thanks to our sponsor follow up boss for continuing to support our show. So Ryan, thanks so much and we’ll see you on the next episode. Thanks CJ

Michael Vervena with iGuide talks about the start of his career and how he got involved in services helping realtors. Michael also discusses the importance of virtual tours in making informed decisions for certain properties. DJ and Michael also discuss the importance of providing accurate information on the size of the property you’re representing. Last, Michael talks about staging and gives tips on how to make the most of it.

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

If you’d like to get more information on the services offered by iGuide, visit their website by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Follow Up Boss. Get your 30 day trial by clicking here.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by follow up boss. The best of the best know that outstanding follow up is essential for a thriving real estate business. And more than ever, they’re using follow up boss the leading CRM for real estate to make it happen. Follow up boss helps you convert more leads. Robert slack, founder of the number one real estate team in United States uses it in his $1.5 billion business. Deborah Beagle uses it to guarantee that agents who join her team get two homes under contract in their first 90 days, and Barry Jenkins uses it to automate everything to run his $200 million team on a 25 hour workweek to reclaim his work life balance. For a limited time follow up boss is doubling their free trial for keeping it real podcast listeners go to follow up boss.com forward slash real for 30 days of unlimited access, no credit card required. That’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for a 30 day free trial. And now on to our show.

Welcome to 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 answering a very important question, which is how should I structure my virtual tours and my photos for best customer engagement. And we actually have an industry insider Michael Verbena from Ai guide to talk specifically about these practices. But before we get to Michael and I guide, I want to remind everyone the best way you can help us grow. Actually, I’m gonna ask you for two things. Normally, I just asked for one. But it would really appreciate you helping us out in both things take less than a minute. But if you do like the show, and you want to help us continue to reach a broader audience, please do two things. Tell a friend to think of one other realtor that you know that could benefit from hearing from top producers and industry insiders like Michael and send them a link to our website, you can find us at keeping it real pod.com Or just have your friend pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. And the second thing is please leave a review for us whether you’re using iTunes or it’s now known as Apple podcasts or Stitcher or Spotify or Pandora or Google Play Anywhere you listen to our podcast, please leave us a review. It really helps us reach more people. But thank you very much for continuing to support our show. I think we’re at episode like 313 right now. So we’re super, super grateful for everyone because you’re the reason that we can continue to grow and support the show. So thank you, and now on to our interview with Michael verbena.

Today on the show we have Michael Nirvana from Ai guy. Now let me tell you about Michael Michael Rivanna is a manager at AI guide which is a proprietary camera and software platform for capturing and delivering immersive 3d tours DPL four plans and reliable property data. He enjoys the process of working with others to build something unique, whether it be a product brand or a company and since 2016 Michael has established the AI guide brand and Canada as one of the leading 3d technologies and has most recently led the expansion of AI guide internationally. Visit I guide at go i guide.com. That’s go the letter ai guide.com And we are super excited to welcome Michael to the show to introduce this technology to our audience. Michael Welcome.

Michael Vervena 3:53
Welcome. Thank you for having me.

D.J. Paris 3:55
We’re really excited to have you here. Before we we talk all about you know the sort of virtual life that that we are all had been living for the last several years. No thanks to Coronavirus. Be very curious to hear about your sort of path into real estate. How did you get into this industry?

Michael Vervena 4:18
Yeah, sure. Yeah, that’s great. I well, I guess it started out I I’m a child of a product of two Realtors I guess at the end of the day. My dad is a broker owner for the last 50 years and still at it doing commercial residential real estate. My mom was a realtor for a dozen years and successful on her own right. And so I’ve always kind of been in the periphery of the real estate world. You know, listening to other episodes of of top performers on your show where they talk about how they got into real estate and, you know, in part because of their parents who were, you know, uncertain about getting into it. You know, similar story with me is, I didn’t really want to get into not less less about being in real estate, but I didn’t really want to be in sales, however, ended up finding my way into consumer packaged goods world got into sales and marketing and product development and really started to enjoy and embrace kind of the things that we do making, you know, I guess I built a career on improving processes, improving products, and you know, making the sales process easier and making the messaging easier so that people better understand of products and services are a right fit for them. So I ended up moving on from that career and helping out a lot of small and medium sized businesses in with their sales and marketing, lead generation, any removing hurdles, and helping them to streamline their processes and getting closer to their customers. And hence, it’s how I joined up with I guide, you know, came across them fascinating technology. They were pivoting, you know, when I got started, they were a company that were servicing real estate agents directly, they were, you know, producing the 3d virtual tours and photography and marketing services for photographer for agents directly. And they had just pivoted in order to scale. And that’s when I joined on on board, and we had probably less than 50 service providers around 50 service providers at that point in time. And now we’re over 1000 service providers were in 26 countries were coast to coast in the US. And yeah, it’s been it’s been fun, we’ve probably done over a quarter million 3d tours, and drafted over a half a billion square feet in, in floor plans. So it’s, we’ve come a long way. And it’s exciting to see this grow, and especially in the last couple of years. So I’ve got back into the real estate game, not directly but you know, servicing this industry. And it’s exciting. It’s nice to see how this industry is growing.

D.J. Paris 7:09
Yeah, it is really impressive. Being that, you know, virtual tours have been around for some time. But you know, I think maybe in the last several years, when we went into lockdown, and we started, you know, looking around our own, you know, four walls, most of us were probably working from home. And maybe we started thinking about, you know, as just sort of workers, do I am I going to return to the office? Or do I want to upsize? Do I need a home office? You know, am I am I going to be, you know, in? Am I going to have a home a home office life that I didn’t have previously. And, you know, for me, I know specifically I decided to upgrade. And even though I’m not working from home, it made sense for me to explore other options. And I will tell you, the very first thing that I as a consumer looking to find another place to live, we’re looking at when I was exploring different options with condos, and, you know, various sort of different types of properties here in Chicago was I went straight to the virtual tours. And I’m always surprised at how I was always rather I should say it this way, I was always disappointed a bit when a listing wouldn’t have a virtual tour. So I’m curious to get your thoughts on how important virtual tours are and what sort of trends you’re seeing as from, you know, buyers and sellers, with respect to how important they are to a listing.

Michael Vervena 8:46
Yeah, great question. You know, quite simply, you know, that 2020 This shift in terms of what we’re all dealing with and living through different two different extremes in Toronto we’ve been in we were in lockdown for probably one of the longest periods of time. And definitely a shift in terms of the use of this technology, not only in residential real estate, but we’re seeing it in commercial real estate and all these other sectors, in terms of being able to convey space and show and demonstrate what a space can be or look like communicating that and so, you know, we have a we have a technology that documents property. And what that does is it gives the ability to to be in a space virtually as simply as you know, you can just be there. And so what that really does is that helps empower people to make informed decisions about that environment. Because you can go in there now and you can, you know, get comfortable with understanding what that space is like you can measure on screen you can figure out if your furniture is going to fit. And one big part of what we provide is the floorplan side, right on the actual image 3d tour. And people find that as important, if not more important than just the 3d tour. Because as you’re walking through that space, you understand where you are in that space and where you’re positioned, how you’re fit and flow works for you, if it’s a business, or if it’s, you’re a buyer looking to buy a home, understanding that, hey, my baby’s rooms gonna be close to my room where my teenagers rooms gonna be on the other side of my room, is this going to provide enough space for me within the home, but to talk about, you know, the industry as a whole, you know, prior to COVID, you know, this was it was a slow game in terms of using this technology, to better market properties. And what’s interesting coming from my background, and consumer packaged goods, you know, marketing to consumers, when I came into residential real estate world, that it was interesting to see that there was a shift going on within the industry, you know, Zillow quickly become the gone from being a disrupter to being in the incumbent, because they had won the eyes of the consumers. Eyes are the prize. And, and so now you’ve got people like Amazon that have come into the industry. And so you’ve got this, when you’re searching for a home online, you’ve got all this wealth of information and data and great information about searching for a home. And you know, when you’re on these search portals, you can find out walk scores in the schools in the neighborhood, and you can really zone in and understand if the neighborhoods can work for you and your family. But then you kind of drill down into the house information. And as you pointed out, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, I literally looked at a property yesterday, that was $2.2 million, that had seven cell phone pictures on it, that were low res, and I couldn’t even make out with the house like a $2.2 million home. And then you go the next home. And it’s it’s a half a million dollars, they’ve got a 3d tour, drone video, beautiful photos that really convey like what this property could be for you. And so when we saw COVID hit, definitely that demand went up because people couldn’t go into homes, they, you know, they couldn’t see these properties. And even though we saw people buy homes sight unseen previously, with the 3d tour and the floor plans that just, you know, definitely did skyrocket and drove that. Over the last year, we’ve seen that come down a bit, probably more so in the US and in Canada. But that that overall trend has increased greatly over previous years. And what it’s doing is is creating a better consumer shopping experience for the home buyer. It’s giving them the information that they want. And, you know, as a consumer, myself, you know, I think everybody can relate that we’re all you know, even with working from home, I seem to have less time now than I did before. And you know, I don’t have time to run around and do those errands that I don’t know how I found time for before. And you know, if I’m searching for a home, I want to make sure that when I do go look at a home, it’s the right home for me, I’m a better qualified buyer, I’m not wasting the sellers time, I’m not wasting the agent’s time, not wasting my time. And we’ve seen redist we’ve got this tremendous feedback that this has helped to sell homes faster and made this process of the transaction easier as well.

D.J. Paris 13:33
The other thing that I guy does, that I am a huge fan of and i Everybody should be a huge fan of is that it also accurately measures rooms. This is one of the biggest challenges that Realtors face when either listing a property or showing a property. You know, obviously, buyers have specific needs around room sizes. And, you know, we you and I were speaking before we went on the air today about how challenging it is because oftentimes realtors will use previous MLS data to to to put up a new listing, which may in fact be inaccurate. And so the buyer shows up the rooms aren’t as advertised, or at least with respect to the measurements. And you guys solve for that.

Michael Vervena 14:25
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I can relate just to kind of a personal story is probably more impactful with pictures. But, you know, going into last winter, we knew we knew that we were going to be sitting outside a lot more and you know, maybe have friends outside distancing. And so I got hit on Instagram with a firepit and I’m like, This is great. I’m gonna buy this. This is perfect for you know, sitting outdoors, and it showed to be like about knee height. There was a picture of a person’s leg. It showed that it was you know, 19 inches tall and in a pocket Really 90 inches wide. So it was, you know, it probably just been bigger than a milk carton. If I don’t know if I’m beating myself if anybody knows what milk cartons look like anymore, but that size, and you know, six weeks later shows up in my mail, and it was the size of a candle holder and my, my family has not let me live this down. They teased me about this. And it was misrepresented and advertised. And even though they showed it was that size, I you know, they actually showed the inches and they totally misrepresented what they sold me. And you know, that was damaging to that company’s brand. And when I mentioned that company, I wouldn’t buy anything from them again. You know, and it was, it was disappointing to me as a consumer, and I’m actually questioning if I would ever buy anything again, on, you know, Instagram, to my wife, my wife, we said, Well, you didn’t research it. So, you know, shame on me, partly for that. But you know, at the end of the day, it was misrepresented. And that happens all the time in terms of when you go to sell a home. We see it all the time, just at the end of last year a case there was this a case here in southern Ontario. And I see that the cases all across North America, where you know, the buyer was a first time homebuyer went into the home. The home was advertised the they advertised a range between 2020 500 square feet. Yeah. Which is problematic in itself. You know, you know, it’s like if I sold you a used car and told you it’s between 60 and 80,000 miles, you how would you think like you need a new car? Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 16:35
wouldn’t trust you.

Michael Vervena 16:36
Yeah, exactly. So that’s what they said, the homeowner told the buyer, it was 2100 square feet, agents said it was 2000. And when it had an independently appraised, it was 14 150 square feet. Now, wow, that is that is a big difference. And you know, definitely, you know, upsetting, especially in markets, you know, we’ve been dealing with hot markets for years now. And you know, across North America, you’re seeing that prices of homes are going up. And in Toronto, they’re over 1000 bucks a square foot. So you can quite quickly add up in terms of what that cost is on that home. So what we do is, you know, we have a camera system that’s using a lidar time of flight measurement system. And so we’re measuring, you know, 1000s of points in each room. And we upload that data that data is uploaded to a team of drafters who draft with those four plants, they follow a prescribed methodology of measurement. And now if you don’t know what that is, it’s quite simply, as you know, you’re gonna get a final answer in terms of what the total square footage is on the home. You know, back in math class, you got marks for the final answer and your math problems? Well, that methodology of measurement tells you how you solve that problem to get to that answer, what you included, what you excluded in the rules about how to measure that home. And so then now you have an apples to apples comparison, when you’re looking at two properties, what you included, how you measure the home, all the data points that went into it. And so that gives you like that math problem, the rest of your marks, and so if there is a dispute, you can quite quickly, you know, talk to the other person, or whoever has a different measurement for that home. Because you send six appraisers into a home, you’re gonna come back with six different answers. But you know, it’s all within a range of, you know, a couple of percent if you can stay within that range. Okay, now that’s acceptable. And you can go through exactly how you got to that answer. So it’s defendable for you as an agent, when you use a builder’s plan. Sometimes it’s kind of like baking a cake, I’m going to it’s an as built plan. It’s not necessarily always built to that plan. They change things I worked as a framer for years, you know, you’d move doors and windows and you know, there will be changes in that in that property. So what is the final outcome of that baked cake, when you bake that cake, you have a recipe at the end, you have that final product, you have to go back and and measure that home to find out what that accurate measurement is. And those measurements are rather. And that helps, you know, protect you as an agent protects us your brand, and you’re providing your consumer with precise and accurate information. One last point on that is realtor.com did a study in 2020 where they asked you know, you asked about the market and what how COVID affected it, but they asked consumers what is it that you wanted to see and sure the first thing that came back was a 3d tour because they couldn’t get into the properties, but they wanted accurate and accurate listing information. And you know, so that reliable, sorry, accurate and reliable listing information. And if you’re using someone else’s MLS listing, you’re using tax data, you’re using a builder’s plan if you don’t know verify that as an agent, you’re opening yourself up to risk. And you’re doing a disservice to either the seller or the buyer, depending on if it’s bigger or smaller.

D.J. Paris 20:09
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is a really important thing. And it’s also a way to differentiate yourself as an agent amongst all the other agents out there to say, Hey, I’m going to not only sell, you know, do a virtual tour for this property, but we’re going to accurately measure every single room to give the most immersive experience to a potential buyer, but also accuracy. The and to speak to accuracy with to a seller is really, really a nice value, add, in my opinion, to be able to say, hey, we’re not just going to take beautiful foot photographs, but we’re going to do a secondary piece on top of this, which is making sure each room is measured correctly. And then we’re going to create an environment where potential buyers can play in those rooms, and see themselves with and be able to put their own personal items in those rooms, you know, virtually. So it’s so important. And I know that every not every, of course, but a good number of buyers and sellers who are, you know, somewhat technologically savvy are going to explore options like this before they end up putting offers in. And so it from a cost perspective, you know, what does this look like to an agent? You know, what is this? Is this an expensive process? Or is it reasonable? Or?

Michael Vervena 21:39
Yeah, I think, you know, again, it’s reasonable. So, our services are usually offered through third party photography, and marketing companies, sometimes in House Media Department for a brokerage or team will have their own system. And so typically, it’s bundled in with, you know, photo package, and then they may do other things as well. I mean, if you look at the eye guide, it’s an iframe like a YouTube video is an iframe, it’s embeddable, you can put it on your website, it acts like a single property website, in a sense. And you can include things that, you know, all the top things buyers want to see when they’re searching for a home online. That’s not for me, that’s from NAR home buyer and seller study comes out every year, you know, they want to see photos, they want to see property details. You know, that’s not only the rooms and the rooms, the number of rooms and the price of the home. But what are the room sizes, what are the total area calculations of the home. And number three that comes up every year, our floor plans, because floorplans depict how that home fits and flows for them. And so it provides all this detailed information, you can include things like video and drone, video, 360s, and drone videos, it just depending on the provider that you use, it’s all for your services, but this can be delivered. And I think, you know, typically, it’s around, you know, for an average sized home, I would say between 250 and 299. With photos, all those other things like video and drone stuff would probably be extra, but that would be 3d tour for plans, room measurements, area calculations. And photos are typically in that package. Now that ranges from market to market, you know, in in Northern California, you know, San Francisco area, it’s probably going to be a little bit more than, you know, in some other markets that are out there as well in the Midwest. So it’s all dependent on the independent buyers, but it’s quite reasonable in terms of the cost of the home. It’s a fast, easy process. And the nice thing about it, it’s a marketing tool. So you get all that content together, you put that out on the MLS like through your multimedia link, and that’s gonna populate on realtor.com and on Zillow, and it doesn’t populate, like down below. So Zillow used to, you know, you know, they used to have it down below below the fold, they’ve seen the importance and the search portals have seen the importance of this. And in Canada realtor.com. They embed it right on the main listing page, Zillow and realtor.com right underneath the main photos, they have 3d tour, and you can click on that. And now you can have this immersive experience the benefit, you know, beyond the buyer where now the buyer has all this information that really qualifies them and gives them a good understanding of the property. The benefit to the agent is you’re keeping people on your listing much longer like we see the analytics. And we’ve got the analytics back from a lot of the search portals and told us this that, you know, people typically will stay on a listing much longer really dive deep in understanding that property. To boot. They’re going to see your branding there and understand that you’re the agent that’s putting this out and that again just bolsters your And and what you do to help people market and sell a home, which is one of the top things that buyers want our sellers, one

D.J. Paris 25:08
sounds, it’s such a great observation that you do want people lingering on your property that you’re selling virtually, or in person, as as much as you want, we know that, that that’s always a good thing. And by the boy, you just made a point that I want all of our listeners to understand is you want people hanging around your listing as much as possible. And by giving them a immersive experiences that will keep them engaged, and they’ll be able to explore the the property, obviously much better than just through static photos. It is it my question is, is there ever, you know, in your your business, of course, is through virtual tours? Is there ever a reason not to use a virtual tour? I mean, it seems to be the what the consumer wants? And what what it if you don’t have it, I suspect, you know, like, I when I went looking for my property, I had a neutral to negative feeling if I didn’t see a virtual tour, because then I went oh, no, I have to go see the property. And I, you know, and with photography, too. That’s the other thing that I’m curious about, is I think consumers are wising up to the fact that we don’t live in an Instagram perfect world. And when we see professional photography, we understand that there’s a little bit of staging that’s going on that that yes, the room doesn’t really exactly look like that. But with virtual with virtual tours, you can actually see what the room looks like. Because I know when I see, we have 800 agents here at our company. And when I see the photographers that they use a boy, the sky is always perfect. You know, for an exterior shot of the house, the interior shot are all perfect. But again, does the home actually look like this? The virtual tour will confirm those those particulars, right?

Michael Vervena 27:15
Yeah, you’re right. And well. So to kind of touch on that I’ll start with the last the photos first. The photos are that emotional draw. Same with video video is really about building agents branding to and join them in, in what we’ve seen in the photos kind of draw you in. And I know personally, because I’ve been looking for a home for a couple of years in the GTA. And it’s such a hard market to to try to buy in, especially when we’ve got such a limited area that we were picking. And my wife will look at it. And she goes, yeah, now don’t like it. Because the photos are not very good. I’ll put it that way. And it doesn’t it’s not enticing. But I’m like, no, no, look, look, the size is right. Like this is good for our needs. This was fit her needs. So I have to drag her there to go look at it. Well, on the opposite end, you know, she’s taken me to some homes, because the photos are gorgeous. The house is beautiful. And I’m like, Yeah, I think it’s too small. Like it’s gorgeous. But we’re gonna have less storage. You know, it’s just not it’s the right round rooms. But if we’re going to be struggling in there. And you know, in a couple of cases, the agent didn’t put the floor they had floor plans. They didn’t put them online. Yeah, had to go there walked in the house in the yard, right? We just wasted our time. Let’s go. And it’s like, so those, you’re right, it does draw you in and keep you there longer. What the beauty is, is if you have a home that’s rough or a rental property, or you know, something is demolished, because I’ve seen, I’ve seen crazy images out there and stuff that you necessarily wouldn’t put those 3d tours on, you know, nice thing with our tours, you can turn off certain rooms, you know, if you’ve stuffed that everything in the garage full of stuff or, you know, storage, messy storage, closets and stuff like that if it wasn’t staged, but the floor plans, you know, don’t show the mess they sell they sell the potential the home. And that’s what’s nice about the floor plans because it shows you where the storage is where the light comes in where the windows are, if you need to change things around and it really actually provides more information. I think Zillow does a homebuyer study where they see that four plans are higher than 3d tour is number two on their list. And wow, again, it really kind of gives you a good understanding of the fate and flow of their property if that works for you and your family. But, you know, again, the 3d tours if it’s, you don’t want to show some of those images. Yeah, absolutely. You can turn those off and just use the floorplans and some of the photos to depict it.

D.J. Paris 29:44
So it’s a really interesting so for our listeners whenever you have a listing Are you number one having a vert including a virtual tour, are you including floor plans, which that’s probably the easily overlooked option and You know, he’s absolutely right. Because I know that floor plans they do in some way. It really, Michael’s right, they give you so much more information than a static picture. And you can plan Whoo, I guess, pardon the pun or pardon the using the same word AP, it’s built into the word floor plan. So what do you have floor plans, people in particular, you know, who have a personality type where they like to, you know, visually see things and plan for that next move are going to want to, you know, put those things together. And that enables you to do that. So for plans are a must. virtual tours, of course, are also a must. And AI guide essentially does all of this for you. I’m going to pause for just a moment to acknowledge our sponsor for this episode, which is follow up boss now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country. Do you know which CRM is used by more than one of our guests than any other? Well, you guessed it, 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. But don’t take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the United States uses follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business real estate business rather in six years. And follow boss also integrates with 250 different systems, keep your current lead sources. And they will integrate with all of your different platforms there and get this follow up bus is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a free 30 day trial. Now that’s twice as much time as they give everybody else. But you have to follow the special link to get that 30 day free trial. So visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real Oh yeah, and by the way, no credit card required. So you can try it through 30 days, risk free, but only by visiting follow up boss.com forward slash real follow up like a boss with a follow up boss. Michael wanted to also talk a little bit about sort of do’s and don’ts with respect to photography with with listings. I remember when I first entered this industry, and I’m not a practicing agent, myself, our listeners are practicing agents. But I remember 15 or 12 years ago, I guess that there was a prevailing thought that keeping the room as as bare as possible was a good idea so that people could visualize their own stuff within the confines of those rooms. Curious to to know how that’s changed and shifted over time. And if you have suggestions for our audience about how staging should happen when somebody has a listing.

Michael Vervena 33:03
Sure, yeah, and and then that’s the nice thing about how we offer our services through third party real estate photographer companies and, and, you know, all these these these companies are marketing companies, they’re they’re professionals in terms of really helping you kind of, you know, finding the right partner, but really helping you in terms of staging that. And on the staging side, that’s that’s part of it is reducing the amount of clutter, taking down personal photos, there’s there’s lists out there in terms of where you know, top things that you can do to, you know, make that property more appealing, changing paint colors that are very dramatic, to, you know, more muted, more whites making it look more, you know, fresh and modern. And, you know, the more things that you do, and if you’re your agent, or the company that you’re that the seller, or the agent is working with, you know, procure, like professional services to help you out with those things, because they do bring a lot of value. On the other side of it too, you know, from our 3d tour side and the photos, you can you can take, you can shop those out to third party providers, or a lot of the companies will offer these services that to virtually staged spaces. So if it is a builder’s home, or if it is an empty apartment or condo, you can get some of the rooms staged, which also help kind of, you know, help people to envision what it looks like or what it could look like. And that’s a more cost effective way to be able to, you know, add those things. I think, you know, on our side from what I see in terms of adding value, and this is a bit of a tangent.

I think in terms of any digital assets that you’re going to get and if you get propelled So in digital assets, professional photos, a 3d tour or floor plans, get the room measurements, area calculations, all that stuff together. The big thing that we, you know, I look at, I look at 1000s, and 1000s of agents in their analytics, and I can go in and look at the listing and see how they’ve done on that listing. And, you know, sometimes unfortunately, there are agents that will pay for all these services, but then they don’t really market those services or share them, and you get great analytics. And so one of the big pointers that we kind of share is about getting the most out of your online listing is by stage share and show stage that stage your digital assets just like you would stage your home. You know, getting those professional photos done, getting all your digital assets together, and packaging them up in a way where you can deliver them. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, you’ve got this into an AI guide, you can put that out through your MLS system and habit show right under the main photos on Zillow or realtor.com or realtor.ca, for examples. And that’s the stage part but the big part where you get a lot of value as an agent. And again, homebuyers home sellers are looking still one of the top things that home sellers look to their agent for his to help sell and market that home is share that you know market that property you get it on the MLS, you get it on Zillow, you get it on realtor.com and realtor.ca. You you share it on your social media. And in some cases, when I look at some of these analytics, their agents daggits 1000s of views through their social media. Now I don’t know if they’re boosting or they’re just gonna, you know, huge followings. But a lot of the top agents will, you know, get tons of views on these properties. And why is that important, because then they can show results to their clients. So one thing that we provide is analytics report, you know, here every week and analytics report, you can take that to your your home sellers and say, hey, you know, feel good about how many people came in looked at this home, because this is how many people came in looked at it virtually, this is how many people returned and looked at it again, this is how much time they spent on it. And here’s all the ways that I got your property out there for people to see. And the reason why I love Analytics, you know, being a, I guess a kid of Realtors is that I think a lot of home sellers don’t realize how hard Realtors work. They work weekends, evenings, they’re busy all the time. And part of the you know, I guess the not appealing part of real estate is get to work for yourself. Your entrepreneurial is fantastic, but you’re working all the time. So it’s that that toss up, this is something tangible that you can show to your clients to say, Hey, this is the value that I brought to the table, and you know, tuck them in after your solo home, especially in a market like across North America right now, where homes are selling in days, we’ve been dealing with that in, in Ontario, Southern Ontario in Canada for years, and you know, home sells fast. You know, your sellers, you know, they want to make sure that they’re their next referral, that they say use my agent because they did this, this this for me. And they showed me how they did such a great job for me. It just brings more value to your talking your clients and you make sure that they’re happy with what you brought to the table because referrals and winning listings this is, you know, a key part of law. I guess what my dad always used to say bread and butter, right?

D.J. Paris 38:26
Yeah, no, you’re absolutely right. And I think that it’s really important. So you create these great virtual tours for your listings. And then you have to promote them on social media. At the very least, of course, they’re going to also distribute to Zillow, Trulia realtor.com, as you mentioned, but promoting them on social media is really important for our audience to understand. Because not only does that get more eyeballs on the property, and hopefully, maybe even a few additional buyers come your way. But it also is a branding exercise for you to showcase. Here’s what I do for my clients. Here’s why when people hire me, why they hire me and what I can do for them. And so it really feeds every part of your business, including, of course, the end result for that particular client, which is to sell that property, but it also introduces everyone in your social sphere, to your process. And by pushing and it creates content that you want to probably, you know, most Realtors on a regular basis are thinking, what should I be posting on social media right now this is content that you can promote and you can re reshare it as well. So maybe a year after the home is sold, you can repurpose that content and say hey, you know, here’s something I did a year ago that I thought was really neat. So there’s really a lot of benefit in addition to just helping get a home sold for a higher price point. For to the to to for the seller, but I think this also really speaks to marketing and branding. And just separating yourself from every other agent out there who isn’t offering the service. Michael, if anyone is interested in having their photographer connect with with, with that guy, what’s the best way that they should reach out?

Michael Vervena 40:21
Yeah, just go right to go guy.com. And you can, you can connect with one of our product experts right there. And they’ll provide your demo and all the details that you need to better understand that for sure, they can reach directly out to us there. And that’s probably the quickest path or you know, reach out to us on our Instagram or Facebook as well. And I can provide some links for you to put in the show notes.

D.J. Paris 40:49
We will definitely have links in the show notes for everyone. You can also go to go i guide.com. That’s go Gio and letter i guide.com. Go i guide.com. And ask your photographer your photog to, to connect with I guide because they’re there what they’re doing is so impressive. It’s going to really take your business to a different level. Because what you’re going to be able to do is it’s going to create assets for you to not only sell the property that you’re currently working on, but also brand yourself as somebody who really goes that extra mile with the most cutting edge technology. So Michael, thank you so much for being on our show and be half of our audience. We want to thank Michael for his time today to share some of those tips about best practices around the aesthetics of listing a property and doing virtual showings and Virtual Staging. And also, on behalf of Michael and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to listen and support our show. Best way that you can always help us grow is to tell a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from this great conversation we just had with Michael and send them a link to our website. Best way to do that. Just send them right over to keeping it real pod.com and they can stream every episode we’ve ever done. We have over 300 ready to stream there as well as our Facebook page, which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Every episode we’ve ever done can also be streamed right from our Facebook page. So tell a friend please. And thank you, Michael so much for coming on the show. And we will see everyone on the next episode. Thanks, Michael.

Michael Vervena 42:36
Thank you. It’s great. Appreciate you being here.

Beau Blankenship with Blankenship Group and License Partner for Engel & Völkers talks about the beginning of his career in real estate and how he built his business. Beau takes some time to talk about his previous career in professional football and how that helped his success in real estate business. Next, he discusses how their business-doing changed after Covid-19. Last, Beau among others shares tips on how he develops relationships with realtors from other states, the strategies he uses on selling high net-worth properties and how he determines the best time to list.

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

Beau Blankenship can be reached at 405-623-5227.

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D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello and welcome to 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 for all the listeners that I got a chance to say hello to at the NAR conference in San Diego last week or by the time you’re listening to this probably several weeks ago. I wanted to say thank you it was a pleasure meeting you and also seeing everybody in person how exciting we’re starting to go back to in person stuff. But as always, we want to start out the beginning of this episode by saying thank you. We have we have more listeners now than we’ve ever had. We continue to grow and that’s because of you guys. Please continue to help us grow by telling a friend I think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like the one we’re about to talk to which is Beau Blankenship who is a professional football player turned top real estate agent he’s amazing as we had a great conversation you’re in for a real treat. But please tell a friend about our show. Let other agents know that we exist 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 make sure they find the one with with my name on it DJ because there’s a few other keeping it reels out there and hit that subscribe button and also please follow us on Facebook you can find [email protected] forward slash keeping it real pod and we’re very excited to say in 2022 We’re going to be launching a very intensive Instagram account with a lot of cool stuff that we’re going to do there and sadly we haven’t done that yet. So we’re in the process of putting that together for you guys. But as always thank you and now on to our episode an interview with Beau Blankenship.

Today on the show we have Bo Blankenship in the Blankenship group with angle and Volkers 30 A beaches in the Emerald Coast slash Gulf Coast in Florida. But let me tell you a little bit about both. So Beau Blankenship is a successful business owner, a luxury real estate investor. He’s also the lead advisor for the Blankenship group and licensed partner for angle and Volkers 30 A beaches and from a young age. Beau had consistently a strong desire for success and possess the drive to go above and beyond to make his goals a reality. From the beginning of his journey, he struggled to find a foothold in the ultra competitive field of real estate and property management. As a result, Bo learned what it took to lead a company and after years of dedication to sharpening and sales and team building skills. Both finally opened up his first brokerage in 2018, which is incredible because he was only 27 years old and even more incredibly, he has since cleared nearly a billion dollars in personal sales volume since the start of his career, his brokerage which grew and I am somebody who recruits agents all day every day for the last 11 years. So I am nobody’s more impressed with what I’m about to say than me. But he has grown his brokerage from for advisors in 2018 to more than 70 in 2021. He has cleared more than $608 million year to date with grit determination and a shrewd sense for business and real estate investing. Bo also grew his brokerage sales from 235 million in 2019 to an A pro Reaching a billion dollars in sales just this year. Now bow was able to do this within a span of three years, but continues to lead the markets is number one in GCI and volume for Engel and Volkers number one in the 30. A market for personal sales number one year growth in the Engel and Volkers network and real trends 2020 20. He’s number 36 in the country, and number 71 in 2019. Bose just done amazing things, please visit him on his website, which is 30 A is an apple, so 30 a fine living.com Again, 30 a fine living.com. And also please follow his group on Instagram, they have a really cool Instagram account, Blankenship underscore group, and we will put links to those in the show notes for this podcast. Bo, welcome to the show.

Beau Blankenship 5:49
Hey, thank you so much for having us. And thank you for that great introduction. I really appreciate it.

D.J. Paris 5:54
I am always you know, it’s it’s funny that this is like a 300. And I don’t know, maybe 10th episode, something like that. And I’m always still so impressed. Talking to agents, you know, at this point, maybe I’d start getting bored talking to really successful agents, but I’m never bored. Because I’m always so impressed with people like yourself who have really started at a young age and grown something that Gosh, 99.99% of agents just haven’t done. And so they want to hear how you did it. I’m sure there isn’t any magic formula, or maybe there is. But I always like to start at the very beginning of your journey and sort of hear about how you got into real estate and you know, how you got to where you are today. So if you don’t mind taking us back to the beginning, let us know how you got started.

Beau Blankenship 6:39
Definitely. So I you know, I was growing up and I was always just interested in real estate, we started visiting down here on vacation, I was always fascinated with the properties and you know, the building side of it and how people make money and, and the spec side of things and so it just always intrigued me and then as I was getting older, just the some of the wealthiest people I knew and picking their brains I get through real estate real estate, I buy this, this this and so that always just interested in me. And I was playing football at the time. And while I was training, I got a passable, you know, the courses and all that kind of stuff. And after that career ended, I just pivoted into real estate didn’t know what to do, you know, and so I pivoted real estate and started a property management company. And that just kind of just kind of jumped both feet in and just kind of got going after one career and just pivoted completed another one.

D.J. Paris 7:31
Yeah, you know, it’s funny, I absolutely forgot to mention your football career, which I think is interesting. In for a couple of reasons. One, I think people are always fascinated by people that that play at a high level with sports but also I’m curious to know if the discipline and the hard work and the grit that it was required to make it you know, as an as an athlete translates over to real estate so if you don’t mind sharing with us your your football career I apologize for not mentioning that before.

Beau Blankenship 8:02
No, no, you’re good. No, no people always I don’t mind if people don’t bring it up because it’s typically when people talk about it’s completely fine. I don’t you know, it’s good not talk about it, but it’s so I started high school went to college. I was offered I had an early scholarship offer at Iowa State so I committed them early. Like you know, they were the first ones that really offer me and so I wanted to go play for that person that took a chance on me went there. My coach left who was Jean she’s like at the time, right like two weeks where I got there. So as a new coach came in. So that was so I played my first year didn’t redshirt so played there. And then my best friend was quarterback at another school and didn’t gel so much with the new coach. So I decided to go play with him. At Ohio someone played with him at Ohio played there for the additional three years. And then after that I had a chance to play with the Jaguars those were the Jaguars for for just a short period of time got cut and then just transition here but it is a direct correlation of how to win How to Lose training what do you have to do to win what do you have to do to get better when you have to it’s a direct correlation you know your schedule. So it’s it be watching it all the time, but I mean, it parallels completely LIS wars.

D.J. Paris 9:16
Yeah, I imagine I imagine it does. And I always when I was in college I remember thinking about it when we had in my fraternity one of the football players just happened to be in our fraternity and we never saw him because he constantly was doing two days I think just

Beau Blankenship 9:34
lifting weight lifting unites Phil, I mean, it’s just that translates to and you know, when I hire people, employees or whatever, like having that background, it’s I know, they know kind of the grind and so many parallels again really good with real estate.

D.J. Paris 9:51
Yeah, I imagine it and I imagine to one of the cool things about athletics and competitive athletics is this The idea of learning how to lose I think is so important. And I know we’re going maybe a little bit off off the real estate sort of topic. But I’m curious on how important it is to learn how to lose, because, you know, there’s so much of the business world that’s just about losing. And then, and then just getting right back up and sort of trying again. And I’m curious if that, like you, I imagine athletes probably bounce back a little faster in the business world when they come across a challenge or something doesn’t go their way, because they’re just so used to that’s just part of the deal, I imagine.

Beau Blankenship 10:32
Right? Right. Yeah. So it’s, obviously we never want to lose, and most people don’t ever want to lose, and we’re so competitive, right? And so like, I hate it more than anything, right? And but when you do you have to? I think athletes know. Alright, so that happened, what do I have to change? Now pivot? And go win it again, right? Or what do I have to do to go fix this? And to get better at this to then go win it because it hurts so bad to lose? I never want to feel it again. How can I learn from this and move on? So that’s Yeah.

D.J. Paris 11:06
Yeah. And you end up getting stronger and smarter. And just, it’s, it’s, I’d heard the saying, and it’s sort of one of those, like, it’s a bummer that it’s true, but I think it probably is one of the truest things I’ve heard is successful people just fail more. They’re just constantly like, Hey, we’re gonna keep pushing, and we’re gonna learn from our challenges. And yeah, and I’m curious, curious, go ahead. I’m

Beau Blankenship 11:29
sorry. No, I’ll just say just when you lose, the thing is that it just doesn’t crater you. Because if you if you lose it craters, you completely, and there’s just no rebound from it. Like you can’t, you can’t move at all off your path. Like it just is what happened. And we just got to keep going.

D.J. Paris 11:42
Yeah, people need to not be as afraid of losing. And all you have to do is just is just try a lot of different things. And, and you’ll you’ll you’ll learn about losing. But the cool part is, is you just end up getting smarter. And it’s the same thing with weightlifting, I mean, you don’t get stronger until you go to you don’t have to go to failure, I guess. But going to failure is a very humbling experience with any exercise. And I just came from the gym. So I’ve got that in my mind. And my train pushes me to failure a lot. And it’s the hardest part of any exercise I do, I’d probably for most people probably would feel that way. But it’s like, as much as I hate it, I’m like, No, I kind of have to go to a place where I can’t do another rep. And then let the muscles rebuild and maybe do one more. Next step

Beau Blankenship 12:24
is a it’s the exact same thing as training as weightlifting. And it’s the same thing, you wanna get stronger, you have to eat well, you have to do this, you have to have a regiment, you know, it’s just like, it’s all it’s all, it’s all the same thing.

D.J. Paris 12:33
And this is a business to where it’s tough to have a schedule. And because you’re probably you know, most firms aren’t probably setting the schedule for their agents, and just being able to go well, it’s, you know, at six o’clock, or whatever time you get up, I know exactly what I’m doing at six o’clock. I know what, you know, sort of having your day planned is something that I think a lot of agents struggle with, I suspect you are very disciplined about your time.

Beau Blankenship 13:00
Right, correct. And I think, you know, we own this brokerage, and I think the ones that are successful, treat it like a nine to five, right? The people that come in and just come in every once a while once a week, not saying they can’t be successful. But the people that fail mostly Don’t, don’t show up, the people that show up, they rarely fail to show up rarely fail.

D.J. Paris 13:22
I’ve heard that so many times from from agents who have been on the show is that, you know, if they have a physical office space, they’re like, I’m amazed, I come in at eight o’clock, and I’m the only one here and things like that. So I would love to talk about how you talked about pivoting and how important that is for as you grow your business. And of course, things change. And obviously COVID changed changed the game for all of us in so many ways. I’m curious on on how you guys pivoted because you not only, you know, were thrive during that where a lot of agents really did and I know sort of our listeners might be thinking because if they listen to this show, they’re only hearing about how people had so much successful years, you know, as as we started figuring out what to do during COVID. But there’s a lot of agents that really struggled and I’m curious how you guys not only pivoted but but really took your business to the next level. So did your processes change when COVID sort of came?

Unknown Speaker 14:19
Yeah, a little bit. And so when COVID first came, I remember there was one day, I think in one day we lost like $30 million in deals like backing out walking, walking with an earnest money and it just happened cat hat. I was like, What is going on here? And so I was like, Man, I don’t know if we’re gonna sell another house. Like,

D.J. Paris 14:40
that’s a tough day that I’m out of here.

Beau Blankenship 14:43
So no, it didn’t change. We just kind of, you know, kept our faith and just like just kept going through it and she was gonna happen and Kevin nurturing our people and all of a sudden people were like, Hey, I gotta get down there and I like we just kind of took off. I know that’s not the story for you, but it just kind of took off people wanting to get Hear, so we just kind of kept our pulse on the market, get talking to sellers, Kevin forming sellers, like, Hey, this is what’s going on. This is where I think the market is, we don’t know where it’s going. You know, we saw people get a lot of deals to like lowball deals and get them because they saw an opportunity a weakness in the market, you know, there’s about a three week period where they could, someone could really get an absolute steal on a property. So we saw some of that. But really, what we did was just, it gave us an opportunity to touch base with our sellers, and be like, Hey, this is what’s going on. And just informed because these are mostly second home owners. And so just give us opportunity to reach out and touch them. Buyers wise, you know, just kind of, hey, this is what’s going on. I think this is what’s happening, being in touch with the rental market saying, hey, the rental numbers are still here, people are still trying to get here. And then just kind of letting that kind of dictate it. And then it really just we’re just trying to ride the wave when people were coming back.

D.J. Paris 15:51
Yeah. And clearly, it’s been working really well for you, I was just having a conversation with a top producer here in Chicago. She’s in the US. There’s about 44,000 agents here. And she’s always in the top 15 or so. Which is beyond impressive, because it’s just one person. And I was asking her about her 2022 goals, like, Hey, what are you trying to do? And she said, this, I thought was really interesting. She has been in the business about 20 years. And she said, Well, my number one of my goals for next year is because COVID has, of course, enabled a lot of people to work remotely. And people are now thinking about, you know, moving and, and I know your areas, a lot of like you said, second homes, third homes, etc. But there’s still just a lot of people that are moving to other places that maybe are more climate friendly, or, you know, economical, or there’s tax benefits, like in Florida to do that. And she said what I’m going to do, she goes, I have about five locations, she’s here in Chicago, that my clients tend to either retire to, or maybe they have a vacation home or, and she goes, I’m gonna fly to all five of those locations and and start interviewing agents there and say, Hey, I get I get a ton of business out your way. And I want to develop those relationships. And I’m just curious, because I suspect that’s in Well, we talked about this actually before, going going on the air, that that’s a that’s a big part of your business’s relationships with realtors, in other parts of the country. And I’m just curious on how you develop those relationships, because you’re on the end, where people are sort of, you know, interested in, in their clients, maybe moving there? How do you develop those relationships with someone in you know, a different part of the country?

Beau Blankenship 17:27
Yeah, definitely. It’s a big part of our business. And we’re typically, you know, on the receiving end of it, which I feel bad because we typically don’t have people that, you know, like, Hey, I’m moving to Nashville or whatever, it’s typically the other way around. So Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, Oklahoma, Utah, you know, Birmingham, New York, I’m guessing New York, like, and so we’re getting a bunch of people, you know, referring and so really just letting them know. And so that’s one thing, why I chose to bring Evie here was to be able to have those connections, right, because those were the boutique before I didn’t have that, you know, I’d have to go create those organically. But with Evie, I’m able to call a Boston and call up wherever. And just kind of make those connections. And then you know, in within the V, if you can reach a level called, they call a private office. And it’s just like the top producers that they need network with each others and listening to all this kind of stuff. So it’s really, the business or the company is really helped me do that. And with gatherings and stuff like that. So keep in touch. And they really just nurturing those people letting people know, like, Hey, we’re a top producer, hey, we can do this, this, like you’ll know about our area, because it’s still kind of, it’s now the the area’s gaining ambitous typically, it was unknown for a little bit, you know, but now 30 is gonna get mad, and everyone knows about it, but really just just putting our info out that people know that we can we can do and how we can serve people and really about the area and it’s just connected with other top producers.

D.J. Paris 18:57
Yeah, it’s interesting, you sort of you’re right, you’re on probably the receiving on more than anything for that. However, you have tremendous competition. You know, there are lots of huge successful producers in your area. It’s, it’s, it’s yes. If you were the only realtor there, it’d be it’d be amazing, but you aren’t, you aren’t competing with all those other agents. And, and you’re obviously a very humble person, but it’s, you know, it doesn’t just naturally come to you, even though you’re part of Engel and Volkers, which is such a well respected brand. You’ve earned it, you know, and, and I think I think that’s, it’s so it must be so wonderful to get those referrals. I’m curious, too, when you’re dealing with high net worth individuals, which I suspect is, you know, the vast majority. Are you also oftentimes dealing not just with the principal itself, you know, the home buyer or the seller, but maybe even a team of their people who you know, manage their finances or manage their business is there a lot of that as well?

Beau Blankenship 19:54
A lot of that dealing with assistance and hey, they want to do this. This is what they’re looking for. are a lot of that, but mainly, you know, when they come in, we show them it’s, you know, it’s dealing with them, but there are several times where it’s, you’re just dealing with their system and, and, you know, manage or whatever it is. So that does happen quite a bit.

D.J. Paris 20:16
And I imagine it’s it’s, you’re now having to please many different people sometimes in the transaction on your on the on your side, where it’s not just you know the other side and try to coordinate with them, you now have to really create a really pretty impeccable sort of presentation, for lack of a better word, because you’ve got a whole team of people that are judging you and making sure that you know what you’re doing. Yeah, and clinging

Beau Blankenship 20:41
on to every single word you say. So when you give them a price, you better, you know, preach and have it dialed in, you know, like, it’s, it’s, which is you always should be, you know, man of your word, but like you, you have to be pretty, they hold you to it. So everything. So, yeah, but you have to be dialed in completely when you’re dealing with this view.

D.J. Paris 21:00
I suspect, I’m curious to that, just how you guys sort of sell a property because you are dealing on a lot of times in the high net worth space. You know, and I am curious to know, you know, what your sort of take is on on the strategy for selling some of these properties, which by the way, there are lots of those properties that are always coming and going. And because the investment into those properties are so high, I imagine the presentation has to really be special. So I’m very curious on how you, maybe what you do that you feel is a little different than than maybe what other agents are doing,

Beau Blankenship 21:37
I would say the advantage, we have another one to some area at all, I would just say we just come out hustle everybody, and we’ve got the probably some of the best connections down here, we’ve got an amazing database, we’re very, very well connected. And so really hustling that person’s property, yes, I’m gonna go put on MLS, like we’re able to reach out to our 1000s of people in our database, you know, and really get the exposure that don’t, you know, get don’t send everybody don’t think he wills down here has. And so being able to reach those people that no one else reaches, has really been our biggest thing. It’s like, hey, because I’ve got a list of clients that I can just call say, boom, this is coming. And you know, maybe I’ll sell a pre market or whatever. So really having the database and the connections, and my team just hustling it, hey, I’ve got this coming up caller when you can send it there when you can. And then on top of that is our marketing, you know, our videographer or video or photos. And then the exposure we get. So we get, you know, if it’s over a million dollars, it’s in Wall Street Journal mansions, global New York Times Architectural Digest all this kind of stuff. And so we really get really have a loud megaphone to really get them the reach they need. And so that’s part of it. And really, I would say, after all of that the core of it is us just grinding and hustling that property and get just getting it done.

D.J. Paris 22:56
It’s so well said and I, you know, it’s funny, I think that there’s a lot of, and I’m not laughing at anyone who has this thought, because I certainly would have this thought to if I was producing and not really understanding what it takes to compete that high net worth space. But I would think, gosh, if I could only get a $8 million listing, my problems would be over. And I would think, you know, I’ll drop it on the MLS, I’ll get the right price. And then I’ll just sit back and wait for the deals to come in. But I suspect that’s not, as you just said, you do a lot more because when you have properties of that size, the MLS probably isn’t that important, I suspect. I mean, it certainly helps. But you what you were saying the hustling and reaching out to buyers, even though you’re the listing agent, or reaching out to agents who have buyers who play in that space, that’s got to be the vast majority of the work, I’m guessing and saying, Hey, you got to learn about this property I’m sending it to you, versus just waiting for the listings, or the showings to come in?

Beau Blankenship 23:51
No question that is the majority of it. But really the what’s really, really been beneficial is we have such a pulse on this market and such a handle on the listing inventory, that if another agent has a buyer, where they’re first of all, like so we will this field calls from other agents and so pivot them from automatic Hey, I gotta stimulate ibuyer, what do you have, we’ll send him everything we got, you know, get him because we have such a hold on the market, the listing inventory, that that is such a pivotal role of being able to pivot or age or other agents that call us because they’ve got the buyers and so being able to just kind of have a control on it and just kind of shift whatever we need to shift to to get in people’s hands.

D.J. Paris 24:32
I’m curious to note a little bit about sort of timing when it comes to now on the seller side, knowing when to to list and obviously if somebody needs you to list right away that then that that can happen but I suspect with the clientele you’re dealing with, there’s a little bit more flexibility there to determine when they need to sell and again, these are this is usually not the primary residence it sounds like so there may be there is just more more time and so I suspect They look at you to really get the timing right. And I’m curious on how your team evaluates like, now’s a good time, or, Hey, you know now what we’re about to head into December. And, you know, I’m curious on on how you guys sort of treat that. And obviously, if somebody has an urgent need to sell something, that’s pretty obvious. But when it’s not that urgent, I’m curious on how how you guys determine when to actually list it.

Beau Blankenship 25:24
Right? I guess it just kind of ties back into COVID, because my mind changed after this. So typically, I would not track all my sales since I started. So every month, the transactions a percentage that of that much of our yearly volume, how much was in that month and subtract that completely since I started, and typically, it was, you know, February, July, and October, or heaviest closing months. So that means, you know, earlier the year, summer and fall break, you know, so that’s when our proper solvers strategically list around those times. But since COVID, I, I kind of that’s kind of gone out the window. And so I’m now I don’t know what buyers here at any given time, if we have it, we want to get it up, right. And so I’m not going to wait, because we sold the eight no 11 $9 property, and when we shouldn’t sell one, you know, that’s not normal. And so now I’m kind of getting it up because buyers are working remotely or doing home school, or whatever it is, and so they’re here all the time. So really, there’s not a time now, to get a live, it’s kind of year round.

D.J. Paris 26:30
That’s nice, that’s offers you guys, it does make sense. And it seems like just helps keep the business flowing more more regularly, too. So that’s, you know, one thing that I think most agents, you know, who are working more transactionally, and just sort of client to client, maybe don’t think about as much with because maybe the clientele is mostly just buying a primary residence, but you live in a state in Florida, and you work in a state where there’s a lot of tax benefits for people to retire there. Obviously, there’s, there’s some weather benefits, too. But But I was curious and how important it is for you as an agent to be really up on on sort of tax strategies, not to where you’re giving tax advice, of course, but that you just have a good enough understanding to say, I know why people buy here. I know, generally speaking, what the ramifications are tax wise, does that cut that comes up, I assume quite a bit.

Beau Blankenship 27:26
That’s a big part of our business, right. So we’ll have CEOs move in. Because they’re going to, you know, buy a $2 million home, but by moving here, they’re saving their homes free, what they would have paid in taxes. So they’re moving here in their home setting, you know, so. So it’s a big part of an understanding that understanding the property tax rate, I understand all this kind of stuff. And not to get political here, but political reasons, the big reason why people move here too. And so knowing all of that, and knowing what the school system is doing, and all that kind of stuff, that’s a big reason. You know, so just knowing all that being able to inform our buyers, you know, financially and all that kind of stuff. It plays a massive role in it.

D.J. Paris 28:01
Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, Florida is such a such an interesting state for, you know, politically, it’s an interesting state, or there’s really interesting tax implications to move there. And, and then, of course, you know, the weather and, and then there’s also, you know, negative parts about the weather do that need to be considered. But, but it’s interesting that that you’re right, you probably do, you probably do have to be pretty aware of what’s going on politically, even, just to sort of get a sense of like, hey, if someone’s moving here, is this even a good fit for them? Based on some of their beliefs and the way they they live their life? And taxes, of course. So that’s really interesting. So I imagine you probably have CPAs, you know, that you’re constantly either referring to and I know, again, your clients who are coming in to buy probably have their own team. But I imagine you’re probably constantly talking to CPAs locally to say, hey, you know, let’s, let’s figure out if this makes sense for these buyers.

Beau Blankenship 29:01
100% Yeah, but most of them have their own team, but like, we need to know enough to be able to talk to it, talk about it, and, you know, 1031 tax exchanges, doing reverse exchanges, all of that, because there’s so much they get down here, they bought the first one, I love it, they want to flip to another property to be able to defer the taxes. And so just knowing because they want something big or whatever. So knowing all those things, you know, talking to our CPA, Majid yet really staying up to date on all that’s a huge part of our business.

D.J. Paris 29:30
Yeah, the exchange, the 1031 exchange thing is particularly interesting, because there’s, there’s time limits on that. And so the idea of, hey, I’m going to sell I want to now move to a different property have sort of timing that is it you were saying this understanding your inventory is so critical, and having those relationships with other agents because you know, you do have some time considerations there and knowing how to make all that work is incredibly valuable to the client, of course, and they probably just expect you to have all that figured out

Beau Blankenship 30:00
Anyway, yeah, so for exchanges, we’ve got a guy that he’s been doing all of ours that we just partnered with, he’ll outline it, but there’s a lot of times we get his sellers to say, I’m not selling until I can, you know, find the exact property I want. So, it has to be a boom, boom deal. Like, it’s, we have to tie it up perfectly. So it gets a little hairy sometimes, but,

D.J. Paris 30:19
but I mean, I imagine most agents don’t, don’t really have that skill set or that knowledge set. And it’s, you know, even if you’re just doing primary residence stuff, you know, that that comes into effect as well. And so, you know, 1030, fives and 1030 ones, and, you know, I would encourage all of our listeners to really, you know, spend some time with with a CPA and just say, hey, you know, give me some talking points. So I can, it’s another great reason to reach out to all your clients and say, Hey, I don’t know, if you’re considering, you know, upgrading, or maybe getting a second property. But, you know, there’s, there’s a few sort of tax strategies that that might, might help you. And because I know that as you’ve personally have grown your business, you now have evolved into doing some of your own development. And I’m curious on did those opportunities just did they open up as you became more successful, where you’re now either representing developers or you’re developing property yourself, were those always there at the beginning for you are those sort of emerged as you become larger and more productive?

Beau Blankenship 31:22
That’s kind of how I got going was just making people money, right, that’s just like that, you make somebody money, right? They’re gonna be loyal to you, right? If you keep doing it, right. And so I was making these guys, you know, millions of dollars, I was like, I wish I could just, you know, I would just do it. And there’s opportunities I passed up, as I knew I should buy this, I know, I should buy this, and I sold it to my client, he made whatever on it, you know, it’s just, and then I just got the, you know, just said, Screw it, I’m just doing and so as I was doing it, you know, I would partner with my investors, or I just start doing it myself or whatever. And just, they were always there. It just took me the, the get the, you know, the guts to just do it. And but they were always there. And I always saw and I and I knew what they were, I just had to make myself do

D.J. Paris 32:10
it. And, you know, I’ve talked to a lot of investors who are Realtors over the years. And I’m curious to get your thoughts on this. And almost exclusively when I asked them, gosh, there’s probably a lot of listeners who go, I don’t know, any investors. And all the people I’ve interviewed in the past who do that say, oh, finding the investors is the easy part. It’s finding the deal. And that’s the hard part. I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.

Beau Blankenship 32:34
Yeah, that is exactly what I’ve got a list of investors, you know, anything you think is good doing? So in five seconds, like I’ve gotten, I’ve got no problem that it’s the finding the deal. That’s, that is the that’s 100% True, and finding the dirt and it’s hard to do right now.

D.J. Paris 32:50
Yeah, I was gonna say, with just you know, that there’s just a lot of a lot of a lot of money floating around out there. That is, you’re probably it’s probably it’s become more difficult. I imagine as as your areas become more popular. Yeah, it’s

Beau Blankenship 33:05
more difficult, but the price of lumber and building is just going through the roof. Or we’re seeing more and more people buy real estate as a hedge against inflation, because, you know, it’s through the roof. And so we’re seeing more and more, but the building costs, it’s just that’s what we’re dealing with. Right now. It’s just like, astronomical. So that’s kind of like, what our biggest hurdle is right now with it.

D.J. Paris 33:27
Yeah, it’s curious. I’m curious if I haven’t really checked in on lumber prices in a while that obviously, it’s been a hot button topic for the last two years or so. Do you see any relief in sight there or not yet?

Beau Blankenship 33:39
Well, it was coming down. But it’s it’s the you know, it’s it’s, it’s everything. It’s the the electrician, the plumbers, the lumber, the appliances, or months behind the furnitures months behind the fixtures. I mean, it’s just all of the issues with shipping and all that. It’s just it’s becoming kind of a cluster. So, I mean, hopefully we see some relief, but it doesn’t look awesome right now. But so trying to get through because that’s a big part of my business is building and so we’re trying to see what’s going on, we’re trying to adjust with it. So it’s got to get a higher price point, you know, to to justify the building part. And so that’s what we’re trying to weigh right now.

D.J. Paris 34:25
I’ve been waiting on a new door. It’s like I don’t know what it’s made out of, but it’s like some fancy heavy door, and it’s for my girlfriend’s our master bedroom closet. And when we bought the place earlier this this year it was I guess it was warped, which I didn’t even know that thankfully our mind Spectracide he goes, Oh, they’ll replace it. And I think we’re going on eight months now. And I did kind of even forget about it. And it’s like just to get one door. He and the guy I recently reached out a couple like a week ago going hey, just FYI. I don’t really care. I’m like whenever the door comes in, it comes in big was probably 2020. Like, wow,

Beau Blankenship 35:04
one door, one door, appliances back. I mean, it’s all backed up. So we deal with all that. But hopefully we see some relief and we’re buying stuff in bulk. And so we’re trying to, you know, try to solve it the best we can.

D.J. Paris 35:17
This is, this is funny, I’ll just do a quick thing. This happened just over the weekend, I’m installing a freezer, in my pantry, and I bought it through Samsung, and it’s like a stand up freezer thing. And for the last I bought it like, I don’t know, I ordered it, I don’t know, a month or two ago, and every two weeks now, and I thought this was so smart. And I’m curious, I don’t think other appliance companies have really caught on with this yet. But I get an email from them saying, it’s still going to be on time, you’re gonna get it December 2, every two weeks I went, Boy, that’s a smart thing to do with supply chain issues. Because now it really it’s so simple. And they’re just like, just don’t freak out, you’re still gonna get it December 2, if anything changes, we’ll let you know. I’m like, I’ve bought a lot of appliances over the last six months. And nobody else did that. So I just thought that was that was really cool. But again, that’s something that it’s something that that, you know, it’s like agents don’t you know, it’s not really what they do. But they have to be able to tell clients like, here’s what’s going on, here’s what you’re going to be waiting on for furniture and appliances and materials. Before I have a question that I’m going to pause to do a sponsorship read. But I’m curious to know if as because you’ve got 70 Plus agents in your office. I’m curious as your coaching, you know, maybe agents who aren’t as experienced, I’m curious to know, what’s the number one thing, and I know there again, there isn’t any sort of magic formula necessarily. But what’s the number one thing you tell them as they’re getting started to sort of keep them you know, engaged and, and productive. Because as you were saying, of course, you know, people just, you know, they either grind it out or they don’t. But before we do that, I want to pause for a moment to speak about our sponsor, which is called follow up boss. We love, love, love follow up boss. And it was really cool that they’re one of our sponsors, because after interviewing over 300 top producers in the country, and when I asked top producers, hey, what CRM do you use more than any other follow up boss comes up. So we’re super honored to have them as our sponsor. But let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level of follow up boss will 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 under six years, follow up boss integrates with 250 different systems. So you can keep your current tools lead sources, also, they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so confident that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re going to give keeping it real podcast listeners a 30 day free trial. And this is twice as much time as they give everyone else and you don’t have to use a credit card. That’s how confident they are, you’re going to love it, and you’re going to offer your credit card to them. Because you’re going to want to keep it past that 30 days, but only if you use this special link. So I want everybody to to visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real that again, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. So yeah, I’m curious about how, you know, when you’re coaching agents to sort of, you know, get to that next level, you know, what are you telling them?

Beau Blankenship 38:32
You know, I so with our company, so I’ve got a non compete broker that helps run the company. And I’ve got a team of like six people. And so it’s really, really hard with new agents. And so what I typically what I typically do, if I see some skill set or something with them that I think they’ve got, you know, a really good shot and they just need to hone in a little bit, that typically partner them with a, an older agent right into follow on to learn as much as they can. And it benefits both people and so that’s, that’s what we’ve been doing. And it’s been, it’s proven to work.

D.J. Paris 39:07
Yeah, mentorship, it’s that’s also been something that almost every person we’ve ever interviewed on the show has talked about being important to them as learning from a top producer, shadowing, doing the open houses that you know, maybe other agents aren’t willing to do. And just learning learning from top agents

Beau Blankenship 39:26
just just learn how they do it, how they made it, you know, take the good take the bad and figure it out and then create your own you know, morph whatever you can do off of that and just do it and do it for free and just grind you know and whatever you can do just to to learn from these peoples without me that’s what I would recommend.

D.J. Paris 39:47
Yeah, it’s it’s so important because you’ll learn so many efficiencies and just strategies that other agents especially if you can get a top producer to to find the time to to shadow or having younger person’s shadow autonomy, sir, is you’ll just learn like, oh, that’s what they’re doing. And I know like in the last couple years, I suspect you guys had to get creative as well, to getting your offers noticed, because with low interest rate environments, although I suspect with a lot of your clientele, you know, loans aren’t aren’t that big of a deal, but, but it’s still just, you know, competitive right now with buyers and still competitive, and having to sort of get creative. I mean, me just asking that question on the show over the last couple years, we probably got 30 different creative solutions for getting your offer noticed. That was like, wow, this is really, really helpful. But that’s what you learn when you hang out with a top producer. Yeah,

Beau Blankenship 40:41
for sure. Yeah, it’s, yeah. I mean, that is the biggest thing I would say, is just hanging out with people that have been successful, and just figure out what they’re doing. And it’s not rocket science, right? I mean, yeah, but y’all just have that people skills, and you have to be able to have the market knowledge and, and, and all that, but like, it’s not rocket science, like, just learn from them as much as you stinking can.

D.J. Paris 41:04
Yeah, it’s the, it’s the reason why I got a trainer for the gym I am, I’m just somebody who doesn’t go to the gym on his own. And so there’s that. And I was like, I need some accountability. And I also know what I’m spending a fortune on a personal training, that’s certainly going to get me there. But, but maybe more importantly than that, for me was learning the, you know, with weightlifting, or, you know, just understanding what muscles I’m supposed to use and how I’m supposed to do a particular exercise because anyone can find an exercise routine and go out and do it on their own. But boy, I would have hurt myself, I would have, you know, and I think the same same can be said, for real estate, it just like don’t hurt yourself lifting something you don’t know how to lift with respect to real estate is find a top producer. And even if they’re not shadowing, you just say Can I grab five minutes of your time, I’ve got this situation with my client, I don’t know what to do. And I think I want to do this, but what would you do? And first of all, the person is going to be flattered that you ask them I mean, assuming that they have time to answer you, but boy, you’re gonna you’re gonna learn a lot to save, you have a lot of headaches. Oh, and I’ve learned now that the personal trainer, the best thing for me is just just learning form. And once I got the form down, it’s like, oh, man, I would never figure that out on my own, I would have heard my I would have thrown out my back, I would have done something. And and, and I still need a trainer every single time. But right, but but that’s what you’re saying is basically find yourself a real estate trainer, so to speak,

Beau Blankenship 42:29
on 100%? And just learn from them? And how are they reaching their audience and stuff they’re not doing that you think you can improve on take it and improve? Yeah. And it’s just, um, that’s what I would the biggest thing I would recommend,

D.J. Paris 42:42
as far as communication, you know, I’m curious to once you, you know, finish a transaction with a client. And obviously, these are large transactions. How do you stay in touch with those clients over time? Now, obviously, you’re saying if they ever want to upgrade, you’re going to always be showing them those ideas, because of course, that’s kind of the people you work with. But also, even for somebody who’s it’s a primary residence, they’re not going anywhere. This is where they’re, they’ve moved to how do you stay in touch with them over time, you know, after the sale,

Beau Blankenship 43:14
it’s not super easy. I mean, it’s, you know, because there’s a lot of people. And so, you know, we’ve been, we touch them every week, no matter what we touch them every week, with it was just an it’s not a call, it’s just an email. But that’s, that’s still, every week we touch them, we’re consistent. Every Friday, they will get an email from us, it’s an update on the market, and what’s your soul, blah, blah, blah, and then Christmas, we’ll send out something to them as like a little gift or something. And then, but then we’ll just call it like really just call on text and checking in, you know, like trying to do that when we can. But it’s really, really hard. And so at the bare minimum, we try to touch them once a week with an email.

D.J. Paris 43:55
But even just doing that, and I know you’re sort of like, gosh, we wish we could do more. But even sending out a weekly email is 99% of Realtors don’t do that. You know, even if it’s a newsletter, and you know, or anything, anything you’re sending out, and I suspect, you know, most age, most clients aren’t reading the email so to speak, but they’re seeing that you’re putting in the effort. You’re they’re seeing that you’re you’re connecting with them and sending them items of value. But again, 99% of Realtors probably don’t even do that.

Beau Blankenship 44:28
It’s an that blows my mind if you don’t have a database. I mean, it’s just yeah, I mean, I don’t know how you’re functioning, but like, just hitting them, you know, whether they read it or not. It’s in their inbox. Oh, there’s bogey and others boat every week, every Friday, you know? So it’s like the same top of mine to say do you want to sell?

D.J. Paris 44:45
They can’t forget about you if you’re in their inbox once a week. Well, you’ve given so many so many great ideas and strategies. I mean, even just as simple of and I know for you that you’re probably like, well, this isn’t so profound, but Sending out a weekly email or some sort of communication and probably changing it up every so often and sending the text once in a while and calling once in a while, but sending out that weekly email, if if if you get nothing else from this, this, this episode, just at least implement that. And by the way, you can pay people to do that it’s not even something that you have to, you know, craft on your own. But, boy, if you only did that your clients would have a very hard time forgetting forgetting about you. And if you did that, that’s 52 touches over next year. And again, maybe you’re not going to, you know, when all of your sphere of influence deals or your database deals, but you’re gonna want a heck of a lot more of them than if you send out no emails, or no messages. So I know there’s our audience got a lot more in this conversation than just that. But boy, that is a really specific action step that a billion dollar producer just gave. So please, everyone do that. And, boy, if you can’t do it yourself, you can hire a virtual assistant to do it for probably 10 bucks a week, maybe, or 20 bucks. Like it’s not even an expensive thing. But I want to I want to sort of end there. But I do want to mention that for anyone listening, I have two opportunities for you. If you are in Bo’s area, if you’re in the Gulf, Gulf area slash emerald area, in Florida, and you’re looking to work with the number one team there, and you want to work under with or with somebody like Bo and you’re not getting the attention that you need are the opportunities that that you want at your current firm. And you want to check out what Engel and Volkers is all about. With Bo, what’s the best way they should reach out to you.

Beau Blankenship 46:40
And honestly, just text me text me email me, you find my on the website, you’ll find all my info, Instagram message me, someone will get back to you quickly. But I mean, we’re pretty responsive, we try to be so any, any way that’s easiest for you email, text, whatever.

D.J. Paris 46:57
And you can find all of that at their website, which is 30 A is an apple 30 A fine living. So 30 a fine living.com. But the other opportunity is you’re an agent in another part of the country and you have clients that really liked to hang out in Florida, whether it’s like my parents who now go down there every year and spend, you know, spend the winter or maybe somebody who wants a vacation home or another property or an income producing property. And and is interested in that area reach out to Beau and his team, they, they they know that area, they have the inventory, they know it better than anyone. And you can reach him the same exact way by visiting his website 30. A is an apple 30 A fine living.com That will also be in the show notes. But Bo, I am so grateful for your time, I know how busy you are. And I know you didn’t have time to do this, but you found time for us. And we are we’re eternally grateful for you. And we are excited to see your next billion which I’m sure won’t take much time at all. And see and I’m jealous of your your growth from few agents to over 70 took me probably two years of 10 hour a day recruiting to get to that number. And so I am really impressed by that. But again, Bo’s attracting a lot of agents based on you know, his leadership. And so definitely if you’re if you’re looking in that area to work with a great firm, and goal of Volkers with with Bo is an awesome, awesome group, the Blankenship group. So definitely reach out to them. And Bo, thank you so much. And we will on behalf of our audience, we want to thank both for his time. On behalf of Bo and myself. We want to thank the audience to for continuing to listen support our show, we just ask that you do two things before you sign off on this episode. Number one is to support our sponsor, visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real test out their CRM. It’s awesome. I know you’re gonna love it, check that out. And also, the best way you can really help our show is also by telling a friend think of one other real estate professional that should hear this episode with Bo right now and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done stream right there. Or if they are a podcast person, just haven’t pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real hit that subscribe button, we would appreciate it. Well, Bo, thanks again. And we wish you another billion which I’m sure it’s coming soon and can keep up the great work.

Beau Blankenship 49:20
Thank you so much for having me. I really really appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Just thank you so much. Thank you

In our October episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties talks about networking with other agents and referring business but also using this network as a knowledge source. Next, Carrie discusses the state of the market at the moment and shares her predictions for 2022. Last, Carrie and DJ discuss gifts for the holidays.

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 Follow Up Boss. Get your 30 day trial by clicking here.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by follow up boss. The best of the best know that outstanding follow up is essential for a thriving real estate business. And more than ever, they’re using follow up boss the leading CRM for real estate to make it happen. Follow up boss helps you convert more leads. Robert slack, founder of the number one real estate team in United States uses it in his $1.5 billion business. Deborah Beagle uses it to guarantee that agents who join our team get two homes under contract in their first 90 days, and Barry Jenkins uses it to automate everything to run his $200 million team on a 25 hour workweek to reclaim his work life balance. Now for a limited time follow up boss is doubling their free trial for keeping it real podcast listeners go to follow up boss.com forward slash real for 30 days of unlimited access no credit card required. That’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for a 30 day free trial and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast paid for real estate agents and by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show today as as always is our monthly series called a Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carey McCormick Real Estate Group with add properties here in Chicago. 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 out of 44,000 real estate agents in the Chicagoland area. Carrie is ranked in the top 15 in production that’s out of all of the real estate agents here locally. She’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors, and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments, please visit Carrie at our website, which is Carrie McCormick ar e and I’ll spell that it’s ca RR ie M ccormickre.com. And also please please please follow her on Instagram. You can find her at Carey McCormick real estate for all you Instagram people. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 2:24
Thank you. That’s quite the introduction. Flaunt Thank you.

D.J. Paris 2:27
We’re excited. Well, we get excited when we have somebody who’s as successful and generous with their time as you and I know how busy you are. So what are we going to talk about today? Yeah, so

Carrie McCormick 2:39
I wanted to talk about referrals. You know, part of growing my business I’ve been doing this for 21 years has been networking with brokers outside of Chicago, whether it’s in the suburban markets, or in other states. And as we know, in this market, there’s been so much movement in and out of Chicago. So if there’s any brokers that are listening, that are outside of Chicago, and they need someone that’s good here to take care of their clients, just so you know, I am always available to do that. I love networking with other brokers and doing referrals. And I think, you know, anyone listening in their own markets should really concentrate on growing their network as well. And working with other brokers. I’ve done a ton between Florida between Arizona. I mean, it’s just it, I just feel like it’s been everywhere that I’ve been talking with these brokers, and not only for referrals and business growth, it’s just good to collaborate on marketing, and just you know what they’re seeing in their market just so we get a broader picture. So don’t look always look at referrals, as you know, an income source, which is great. And that’s important as well, but it’s just it’s a knowledge source as well.

D.J. Paris 3:50
Yeah, I agree. I’ve actually interviewed some agents recently for our show who have taken the leap to be exclusively referral based. And they don’t directly work with clients themselves anymore. And literally all they do is just refer business all over the country, and they sit at their desk all day. So you can even go to that extreme. If our listeners really want to, that’s a big shift. But even if you’re, you know, out there working with clients yourself, you’re gonna run into opportunities where people are wanting to move to another location and really a good idea to identify those retirement zones or those second second home zones or vacation home places and start talking to other agents in that area.

Carrie McCormick 4:32
Yeah, no, I think it’s great. And for 2020 to one of my goals is to pick five key markets and I’m actually going to go fly out and have lunch or dinner with some of the brokers just to really do a one on one so something fun and you can travel and you know, get some knowledge and meet brokers. So that’s gonna be one of my goals in 2022. But one thing I want to talk about is just the state of the market of where we are at and I always like to kind of give a little bit of a key word I think, right? Now we’re headed more into a balanced market. I’m gonna read some real quick stats, just of why we’re seeing this more balanced market and the median home sales went pending in nine days, which is one day longer than in August, which is not a big shift. But as you start seeing the numbers start to move a little bit, it’s just giving us indicators of where this market is going. So we’ve seen home sit on the market just a little bit longer than we did in August. And then inventory has been up, it says 0.4%, from August. It’s a very small game. But again, these small gains will start to accumulate over some time. And we’re going to start seeing a little bit more of a slowdown as we go into this holiday season. Again, we’re starting to see more inventory hit the market. And I really think buyers are a little fatigued from the battle that we had this last spring and summer. And that’s kind of how I feel I feel a little bit beat up from this market of just we’re a constant battle with our buyers of trying to get the homes in these competitive situations. So I think everyone’s taking a little bit of a breather, and we’re headed back into a balanced market. And I think it’s good, I think it’s good. But one thing we do have to think about and worry about is 2022 A lot of my buyers and sellers, you know, of course ask us as brokers for predictions, you know, What’s 2022 going to be like? And as much as we’d like to answer that question and be able to be right, we just don’t know. But we also look at indicators. And when you’re working with a broker, like myself, or anyone else who’s been in the market a long time, and we’ve seen the ups and downs of these markets, we do have a good handle on what we see, especially when you’re in and out of the market. You’re seeing the the activity, and you’re seeing what’s selling and what’s not selling. But a few things we have to worry about is mortgage rates, you know, there’s speculation that mortgage rates are going to pop up a little bit. Yeah. And then this mortgage forbearance programs, they’re all expiring soon. So we have to think about that we have to think about these folks that had overpaid for properties. And just you know what happens with the job market. And lastly, the big word that a lot of people are talking about is inflation. So there’s a risk of policy, tightening inflation, higher mortgage rates, you know, all of that is going to affect the housing market to some degree. I do my own personal opinion is I do think that 2022 is going to be a very strong year as well, maybe not as crazy as 2021. We’re probably not going to see the games that we saw this past year. But I do think we’re going to see a nice healthy 2022. And then even just looking into 2023, I think we’ll really start to see a little bit of a slowdown, but nothing major unless something crazy happens in this world. Of course stuff we can’t predict. But you know, we are seeing a nice healthy 2022 coming around the corner for us.

D.J. Paris 8:10
Yeah, that’s encouraging. I’m excited to hear hear that it seems like there’s a minor, maybe a minor correction going on with with just rates and things are slowing down. But that probably gives buyers more of an opportunity to compete. Which is in a weird way, it’s probably better than when lates rates are so low, because then it almost seemed like all the agents that I knew who were representing buyers were just really frustrated over the last year, it was really hard to get offers even noticed or to compete, and people were doing really creative things. But it was just the speed of which those offers were going out and being considered was oh my gosh, you know, you were probably dealing with it all year.

Carrie McCormick 8:51
Yeah. And I think too, as brokers we have to look back. And you know, it was a definite learning curve, even again, for someone who’s got experience, you know, I’ve went through other great markets like this, I’ve gone through crashes. But you know, really, in the last 20 years, I can’t think of any market that we were competing like this. And we all learned a new skill set to and just different ways to structure deals and to get things done. So I think from again, growing as a professional and and servicing our clients correctly, we all learned some different skills of how to get deals done and be creative and get things done. But it was it was pretty brutal. I mean, it was quite the battleground out there.

D.J. Paris 9:37
Well, you know, that really is it’s so interesting and hopefully things agents are not as overworked as they as they maybe were although I know you’re always working but I hopefully people are agents are starting to take a little bit of a breather to just catch their breath. But I have before we go to our I’m sorry. I wanted to head over to our marketing Minute, because Carrie and I wanted to talk about gifts for the holiday season because it is that time of the year where agents are starting to think about are they going to provide something or they’re going to send something out or do a pop by or, or do some sort of gesture of thanks to previous clients, or current clients are just their network their sphere of influence. But before we get to that, I have just a quick commercial to read from one of our amazing sponsors. So this is I’m going to talk very quickly about follow up boss, which is my favorite CRM and also after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country. This is the CRM that comes up more than any other when I’m talking to agents going, Hey, what tools do you use, so we’re super excited to have them as a sponsor. But 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. 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 over 250 different systems. So you can keep your current lead sources and tools. They also have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help you need when you need it and get this follow ups boss is so sure so confident 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 and oh, by the way, no credit card required. So it is truly risk free. But only if you use this special link. So please visit follow up boss.com forward slash real. Once again, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up, boss. Thanks for that. And thank you to our sponsor. So Carrie, gifts for the holidays. What are your thoughts about that? I’m curious, because I have some thoughts as well.

Carrie McCormick 11:55
Yeah, every year I try something different. You know, this year, one thing I want to say before we talk about the gifts is that since it’s been such a great year for all of us as brokers. And we just keep in mind, again, someone who’s been through this before is, you know, you you did great this year, your numbers have doubled, you made a lot of money, you know, a lot of people, you know, don’t reinvest in their business, you know, they’ve made just making up numbers, you know, $10,000 Extra this year, you know, they’re like, you know, going to go buy a car or go buy, you know, something for themselves, which is great, but you’ve got to take some of that money and reinvest it back into your business. And gifting is a great way to do that. You know, because giving to someone, obviously, you want something, you know, you give it to them and you’re hoping that we’re going to give something to you in return, which is those are, you know, more business, but it’s just being thoughtful. So you know that we I always send out holiday cards, I send out magnets this year, and every year I’ve done something different. And I would really love you know if there’s any brokers out there that want to have conversations about this to hear what other gifts have done, you know, well for people this year I’m going to be sending out. I’m a chocolate lover, I’ve got such a sweet tooth and I love toffee. I love chocolate. I love truffles. And I think that’s one thing over the holiday that’s fun to give because you know, it’s something that you’re going to use. So I think that’s where I’m going this year, we’re putting our holiday plan together. But do you have any suggestions DJ,

D.J. Paris 13:32
I do. So we just started adding in, I have two different meal services that I use one locally here in Chicago for my lunches at work and then one for for dinner. And for the dinner one, I actually have to make that they send it to one of those meal kit companies. And so we just started doing this and we actually liked it. We’re like, Okay, this is actually pretty fun. So as a result, about four nights a week, I’m actually preparing a meal where I’m cutting and you know, dicing and cooking and doing all of the things to create these, these meals. And I realized I use my cutting board and my knives now, four nights a week. And I thought you know what a cool opportunity for agents to if you’re thinking about holiday gifts, maybe think about what are some tools or some just items in somebody’s home that they use regularly, or you use regularly or that you’d see regularly. And think about you know, and again, buying somebody a cutting board, I guess could be expensive, depending on the type of cutting boards you get or buying them instead of knives can be incredibly expensive. So it doesn’t have to be expensive items. But anything that’s used often and I don’t even know that you need to put your name on it, although you certainly could. But I know if somebody bought me a cutting board and I was using it I would think about them every so often maybe four times a week. So I always think you know, finding things that are in front of the agents face as or sorry, the clients face as much as possible is always a great idea. And here’s just one quick little suggestion for for those of you that We’re working with clients right now, especially buyers, I think although you could certainly do this with sellers to buyers, maybe this makes more sense, I don’t know. So as you’re going to somebody’s first showing, take a picture of them at their, at every showing that you give them before they even put an offer in because you never know which house they’re going to fall in love with. And maybe even do it with their back to you, as they’re about to enter the house for the first time. And then if that’s the home, they end up choosing, then take pictures of them every time they visit that home, or certainly when it closes. And now you probably have, you know, maybe five 610 10 photos of the entire buying process. And what you could do if you really want to do is you could just put one of those pictures every year in a in a frame, you know, which would be relatively expensive, and send that to them and say, here’s another picture of or you know, if you want to do it for 10 straight years, but maybe you send them three pictures in a frame or one picture of them and that process, and it’s really cost effective. And I think that would be so cool. And you could literally do that on the anniversary date during the holiday.

Carrie McCormick 16:02
I love that. I think that’s such a great idea.

D.J. Paris 16:05
Now it’s a fun one to help with that. Because I would love a picture. See, I went and saw the place that I purchased, which Harry happy to represent as well as it carry wasn’t there when I did the showing. So I actually went by by myself. And I thought wouldn’t it be cool, I should have taken a picture of my girlfriend and I seeing the place for the first time. I just didn’t think about it. And we did take pictures with the other agent agent Lisa, when we were looking at social. So she actually did that. And that’s what it reminded me of that. And so I thought oh, well that would be fun to be reminded of that. So that’s my only suggestion. Think about items that are used a lot or that are really emotional. And if you can attach yourself to that emotion, of course. Great idea. So either find something that’s repetitive like a, you know, some sort of kitchen device maybe or something in the bathroom, or something that is highly emotional like when they bought or when they saw the place for the first time. But that’s that’s all I got for this week, or this month rather. And so Carrie is insanely busy, so we’re gonna let her get back to her busy day. But before we do we want to mention if there are any buyers, sellers, investors or agents who have buyer’s or seller’s or investors who are moving to the Chicagoland area and you’d love to work with an agent, one of the very best agents here in Chicago. Carrie would love to chat with you. So feel free to reach out to her. Carrie what’s the best way someone should reach you? If they’re somebody that wants to work with you?

Carrie McCormick 17:30
Yes, I always say call me 312-961-4612 Or if you want to text me email me whatever you like my emails Perry ca RR ie [email protected]

D.J. Paris 17:43
and please follow Carrie on Instagram she we didn’t talk about it on this call or this this episode but she has an incredibly effective and impressive Instagram account that she does all herself which is even more impressive. So visit and follow her at Carey McCormick real estate that’s McCormick with two C’s. So Carrie McCormick real estate on Instagram and also visit our website which is also really cool Carrie McCormack r e.com. Well thank you Carrie for your for your time. Once again. She’s been with us since the very beginning of the show. We’re so grateful to have her and we’re so grateful that she continues to find time to do this. Thanks also to our sponsor, follow up boss please visit follow up boss.com forward slash real Get Your FREE 30 day trial. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Kerry.

Carrie McCormick 18:31
Sounds good. Enjoy the day. You too.

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

Chris Linsell from TheClose.com and DJ follow up on the topic they discussed in the previous episode about Zillow’s iBuyer program. Chris introduces his top tech predictions for 2022. Chris also discusses house hacking and how to use AirBnB to do that. Next, Chris discusses important lessons from top realtors he has interviewed in recently. Last, Chris and DJ discuss about the client experience and how to build a relationship.

To read Chris’ article on “7 Important Lessons New Agents Can Learn From ‘Old School’ Realtors”, click here.

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 Follow Up Boss. Get your 30 day trial by clicking here.

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by show Ami. Show AMI is the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to get buyers into homes without you being the one to show it. Now we’ve all had situations where clients wanted to see properties at the most inconvenient time or in a location that was difficult for us to show. Now there’s an easy way to find another licensed agent who will show the home on your behalf for a small fee. You keep the client you keep the commission, you keep your commitments. Now show AMI is truly the Uber for realtors connecting busy Realtors with local agents who have time to show your clients the properties they want without taking any part of your commission. And if you’d like to be one of show homies featured agents that realtors can hire to have you help with their showings, you can sign up on their website at no cost. So whether you’re an agent who wants some help with showings, or you’re an agent that wants to make some money helping doing showings, show AMI is the app to use install show AMI on Apple or Android devices or simply visit their website at show ami.com That’s sh O W A mi.com SHOW. A mi ami.com To learn more, and now on to our episode

Welcome to 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 today we have our monthly series, which is called I’m so sorry, Chris. I just lost our son. I’m gonna do a take two here for everyone watching live. Sometimes that happens. There we go. Once 321 Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris, and I am your guide and host through the show today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lindh sell from the close. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the closed.com. And let me tell you about the close. A close.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals. 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. Now please visit the closes the clothes.com That’s th e c l o s e.com and read their articles subscribe to their newsletter also check out the close Pro which is their subscription based platform which we’ll also mention here shortly. But with us as always as crystallin Sal 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. He also is a real estate coach and he is constantly working with teams and individuals and top producers to help everyone grow their production. But when he isn’t writing or helping coaching agents, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage of his community theaters production. Chris, welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to have you,

Chris Linsell 3:38
DJ, it’s time to talk about real estate. I’ve been looking forward to this all week long. And yeah, I think you’re gonna get an earful today because I’m a little fired up, getting ready to take a trip cover conference, and I’m just so jazzed to be talking to people about real estate, you’re gonna get the front end of all this fire today. I hope you’re ready for it.

D.J. Paris 3:58
We are we are ready. And we should mention that as this is being recorded, and it probably will happen after this is released. But Chris is gearing up to speak at Inman Connect, which is actually coming up in just a few days, which is a big honor. And we’re very proud to be affiliated with Chris, because obviously he is a well as a renowned speaker. And not only is he doing that, but this will this will come out in time if you won’t do want to meet Chris in person. He will also be at the National Association of Realtors Conference this November and in San Diego and I will also be there just walking around. I don’t get to speak. But Chris does get to speak and so he’s going to be there and he would love to say hi to you. If you are a fan of the clothes.com and you absolutely should be because all their articles are amazing. Definitely consider saying hi to Chris if you’re at the dinar conference this this November.

Chris Linsell 4:53
Yeah, totally. And if you’re an east coaster and you don’t want to make it out. If you’re in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania come to tripleplay in Atlantic City, it’s going to be in December, I’m going to be doing two presentations there, one of them is going to be for continuing education. So not only can you check something off your list, you can also listen to the bearded wonder kind of rattle on about stuff for a while. So come take a look, I’m excited to talk to everybody. I’m excited to talk to you today. DJ, what are we going to talk about today.

D.J. Paris 5:19
So we are going to talk about a couple of things. And I by the way, I really need to give Chris the credit for all three of these topics, because he always comes prepared. So if you are considering going to watch him speak, if you if you saw him speak this year at Inman, which again, by the time you hear this, you will have already done so or over at triple play, or at NAR, this is why we love having him because he always brings right context. So we really had three things that that Chris was had on his brain. And he has some insight into all three, I’ll hopefully prod him with some questions. But we’ll really we have three things, we’ll just start with the first one now, which is pretty big news. I don’t know that it’s got as much press in the agent community as I sort of thought it would I certainly, I’m sort of in my own little silo here sit at a desk all day not, but I do communicate with realtors every single day, we have 800 of them here at our own company. And I really don’t hear people talking about this, which is a bit surprising. But big news around Zillow, which is they have paused temporarily we believe for now, their AI buying program through the end of 2021. So just a couple of months here pausing, this is a big shift for them. And I you know, I haven’t really been paying attention to the chatter on some of the online forums that Realtors frequent to sort of get a sense of what their thoughts are. But let’s talk about what what’s going on, and maybe some ideas of why we think it might be happening.

Chris Linsell 6:46
Yeah, so So this is important. This is an important story and not enough people are talking about it and almost nobody is talking about it in the correct context as far as I’m concerned. So here’s just a quick bit of insight. You know, if you’re not if you’re not hip to the IBM program, essentially Zillow is buying properties, they do kind of forced appreciation for some provement on it, and they resell them, they collect a fee on you know, any opportunity they have to collect a fee if you know like we all do. Zillow, love them or hate them is like so deep into this industry on so many different levels. It just makes sense that this was a natural step for them. So there are a lot of folks who are feeling kind of perplexed, a little concerned that Zillow is pausing this because they think maybe this is indicative of the real estate market at large that there might be problems here. But let me just kind of call out a quote I read from Jeremy Waxman, who is the CEO of Zillow. He has essentially said, we have not been and I’m speaking as Zillow, we have not been exempt from the market capacity issues that the economy at large has been facing. And we have an operational backlog for renovations, for closings, and for all the different things that it takes to get these transactions across the finish line. Right? So Zillow is not is not saying anything really specific here other than we got work, and we don’t have people to do it. Right, which is not uncommon across the the economy. Right now. A lot of people are finding these sorts of labor shortages to be a problem. We are interrupting this, you know, the supply chain of human capital here, across our economy in a lot of different industries. This is not a shocker to me. But what I think people need to keep in mind here is that AI buying as a whole has accelerated by, I mean, it’s on a magnitude it’s like multiple magnitudes through the through 2021 is in is expected to continue to crush in 2022. Just because Zillow is not doing this doesn’t mean we should think that this is going away that this is the ship is changing direction here. Open Door. Another really big IBM Platform has one poked fun a little bit at Zillow on this just sending out a tweet that says we’re open for business come on over and to the estimates for ibuyer inventory for 2022 actually went up last week. So don’t read the tea leaves too hard on this, if anything. I think Zillow is just being strategic here. They are covering the bases there. They’re cashing in the chips that they’ve got right now. They’re gonna regroup probably q2 of 2022 and see what the landscape looks like. I’m not reading anything into this other than this is this is normal economy effects happening here.

D.J. Paris 9:51
Yeah, I would imagine not being as knowledgeable about the industry of course as you and many other experts have But my intuition is telling me and having visited Zelos, New York headquarters, and having met with with some of their senior leaders, not not the very, very top, but but people who seem to know, sort of the direction of the company. I know that that it is their corporate maximum. And I used to work in in technology, so I can appreciate this. And I was able to sort of see that I believe it was a very authentic sort of conversation, where were we, I sat down with them. And they said, our customer experience is everything, it’s beyond everything, if we don’t provide a great experience for the customer, then they’re never coming back to our site, which of course, is sort of, you know, just tech 101 for customer service, but in user experience. So if that’s the case, where the ibuying sort of processes jammed, because of a labor shortage, or for whatever reason, in that sort of chain of processes, they’re going to pull it because that’s they have they have that top spot for online, you know, real estate, public access, and they don’t want anything to disrupt that. And it probably makes sense for them just to pause ibuying If they’re not going to deliver that, that top experience. Again, that’s that’s a really sort of obvious thing. But But But I suspect there’s a lot of realtors that go, hey, they’re they’re listening to us. And we don’t you know, a lot of realtors don’t like Zillow for various reasons, and maybe some are celebrating thinking, Oh, now they want to put more focus back on on the agent partnerships. I’m not so sure if that that factors in it, I read that same article or that same quote from from Jeremy Waxman. And it seems that unless he’s not being fully transparent, it appears that a labor shortage would make sense. I know a lot of restaurants are dealing with that. Even here in Chicago and across the country. We just had a top pizza place one of the very top pizza places in Chicago, on all the lists of best places to to eat for pizza, it’s a nice place, and they put out a they had to close down temporarily. And the guy said, I’ve never in my life put out an ad for a server that we use, we even pay more than most places. And I got one response in 30 days. And so, you know, that’s just a one little example. But there’s labor shortages going on all over.

Chris Linsell 12:26
Yeah, it’s so wild. And you know, it’s not, it’s not a shock to think that this would we’d start to see the effects of this in our industry. In fact, if you really think about it, seeing these ancillary kind of orbital businesses and business models to the traditional residential real estate transaction, that makes sense that we would start to see these effects in those orbital industries first. So you know, the only thing that I think real estate agents should be kind of perking their ears up about this is, if this is a systemic thing, meaning it’s not just a temporary blip in labor. This is becoming a systemic availability of resources. Here, we may see the eye buyer model shift a little bit at least when it comes from Zillow. And because Zillow really is the sun in the sky when it comes to online real estate presence, that could have some downstream effects for how I bind has done in general. But at this point, I am not crying, you know, the sky is not falling at all, when it comes to AI buying real estate agents should expect that I bind will be present and happening into 2022. Certainly, and frankly, I think it’s going to be a memorial day where we see Zillow announced, hey, by the way, we’re back I bind and by the way, we’re going to be doing it in 15 more markets. So I guess we’ll you know, only time will tell but I think it’s a little too soon to be crying wolf on that just yet.

D.J. Paris 13:53
I almost wonder too, if it would be interesting in a future episode, if you and I did some digging to see if there are any sort of reputable studies or estimations on what an AI by the profile of an eye buyer looks like. And we can determine whether there’s any opportunity there for realtors to, you know, step in. At least if Zillow is temporarily pausing, there may be some action steps there to make sure you’re having conversations with your clients about what ibuying is the pros, the cons, obviously, for realtors, there’s there’s a, that’s a really easy conversation to have around, you know, what I buying is, which is really no different of a transaction than working with a realtor except it’s a little faster and possibly the you know, the the profit to the to the seller might might be less, but to have that understanding so that they don’t accidentally find themselves in, you know, browsing websites, you know, maybe they have a parent that passes away and a home is left to them and they don’t want it and you know, now they’re searching around for how You get rid of a house. And I’m not going to call my realtor because they’re here, they’re not in Arizona, and I’m in Michigan. So they might not even think to contact their realtor to ask about different options. So at the very least, I think it’s a good opportunity to talk to your clients about, hey, you may have seen some, some information in the last few years about AI buying, and I just wanted to give you again, it’s a great reason to pick up the phone, I don’t know that most of your clients will necessarily be that interested in that conversation. But it could be an article you send them it could be, you know, a text or something. But I think most of the public has no idea what ibuying is, I would say, unless you’re in this industry, I don’t know why you would even know about that unless you were exploring it. So it’s a good thing to bring up and educate your your clients about

Chris Linsell 15:40
100%. And you know, I think to me, that’s that’s the real value call out if I’m an agent is working in, you know, every town USA, looking for value to provide my clients. This right here is one of the three key pieces of evidence that is, you know, that successful top producers consistently deliver. This is evidence of the three key pieces are evidence of knowledge, evidence of activity and evidence of success. When you send a little article like this to your clients, you know, add two lines of your of your of your own kind of, you know, commentary and thought on this, you are in about 30 seconds demonstrating evidence of knowledge and evidence of activity, you know, what’s going on, and you’re actively, you know, investing in conversations that happened with your clients, or your past clients or your prospects. These are the sorts of things that move your relationships down the pipeline. So, you know, find there’s a great article on market, watch on Wall Street Journal on CNBC, copy it, paste it dropping into a text message, or an email or a Facebook message, add two little sentences about what you think about this, you’ll be shocked at how the conversation starts there.

D.J. Paris 16:54
Great, well, let’s let’s shift gears and talk about tech prediction or your top tech prediction for 2022. And I do want to just say that, I have always had, again, just read it read articles over over the over many years. And it seems in about the last five years, I kept reading about this tech real estate bubble that was ready to burst. I never totally understood what that meant. But it seems to be that maybe the idea was that there are so many service providers in the real estate industry, a lot of tech service providers, and they’re all competing, just you know, for our listeners, you know, just think about the number of emails you get around CRMs, for example, or lead gen providers, or you know, advertising companies that can help you with your advertising or marketing. Boy, it’s it’s, it’s almost endless and infinite, it seems but if there has been a tech bubble burst, I certainly for real estate, I certainly haven’t noticed it, it seems to be as strong as ever, and almost maybe more players enter the space. So I know maybe we haven’t seen a huge bubble bursting yet there. But let’s talk about your number one pick for what what you think is going to be most impactful to realtors and the public for 2022.

Chris Linsell 18:06
Yeah, you bet done. And you know, I’m just gonna go on record saying right now, this is a presentation that I’m just gonna tease you a little bit, I’m gonna give you some of the top level. And if you want to hear the really juicy bits, you’re gonna have to come see me at NAR because I’m going to I’m going to be presenting on this but my prediction, my number one prediction, for, you know, what’s going to happen in 2022, from the from the desk of a real estate technologist. That number my number one prediction is that the company that will leverage the biggest impact on the residential real estate market in 2022. It’s not Zillow. It’s not some CRM, it’s not some it’s not even a real estate brokerage. The company with the biggest impact on the real estate market in 22 is going to be Airbnb. And let me tell you why. The rise of invest in civilian investing on platforms like Robin Hood, or Publix, or Fundrise, or AR or weeble. These have fueled the momentum that people have in the thought that I can be an investor. And it’s not just in the stock market companies like Airbnb, make it so we can be proper we can be real estate investors. You don’t have to work on Wall Street, you can live on Main Street, and you can be a real estate investor. When you own an income property. And Airbnb has they have not just greased the skids they have dumped the grease all over the ground and now they’re swimming in it to get from to get every day Mom and Pop property owners to become property investors. And there is a significant onramp to Airbnbs growth in 2022 and I’m going to give you one stat to prove what I mean. Buy this. First of all, I guess it’s two stats. The first stat is Airbnb projects that they’re going to add nearly 25% new inventory in the next 18 months 25% You think about there’s going to be, there’s going to be for every listing that you for every four listings currently on Airbnb, we’re going to see a new one in 20, the next 18 months that’s doing

D.J. Paris 20:25
do we know if that’s just us? Or if that because I know certain certain other countries have been slowly being rolled out to Airbnb, so I didn’t know if we knew if that was just us, or if that was across the globe?

Chris Linsell 20:39
That’s a good question. I don’t have a specific confirmation one way or the other on this, but I don’t believe it is the way that I read this stat. It was not Airbnb is entering new markets. Yes, Airbnb is building their inventory in existing markets.

D.J. Paris 20:57
I mean, it makes it makes perfect sense. My sister has a property and investment property that she bought, she is not a big real estate investor. In fact, this is my ticket back she has they have two properties now but but but this again is not their primary job they her and her husband have have traditional jobs and the Airbnb thing made so much sense for her because with where she lives in this property is about a mile from where she lives in Tampa. But But regardless, she’s able to cover her monthly nut her mortgage, and, you know, various expenses within and again, it all depends on how much you put down and what your what your loan, you know, you’re you’re borrowing and all of that, but for putting a pretty minimal investment down, she was able with Airbnb to pay that month monthly, not off it and I think it’s six days a month. So even though it would be a lot less work, although it really isn’t much work, she has a cleaning crew and and, you know, basically just goes and takes a look at it every so often. Other than that, you know, runs itself, essentially. And she doesn’t even have to keep it fully staffed or you know, fully occupied. So for her, it makes all the sense in the world to continue to do Airbnb versus long term renters. And I suspect there’s a lot of people that are wising up to that sort of same situation.

Chris Linsell 22:20
100% 100% You know, and like, let’s also add to this mix, the fact that in 2022, we are expected the world you know, travel organizations across the world are expecting travel to return to near pre pandemic levels in 2022. And the website hospitality tech.com rates, the current consumer confidence in hotel safety at sea minus guess what the rating is for private vacation rentals,

D.J. Paris 22:54
that’s got to be 90% plus, or I’m sorry, a or whatever.

Chris Linsell 22:58
Because B plus, yeah, people feel significantly more safe in private vacation rentals than they do in hotels and then traditional travel, which is going to drive the profitability of these short term rentals up even higher than it is right now. We’re gonna see incredible demand, we’re going to see continued reasons for property owners who are in the Airbnb system to never even think about selling why in the world would you sell a like your like your sister a near set it and forget it money making machine? In fact, you would be silly. If you are in a market right now, where you’re making money with Airbnb, you would be crazy if you didn’t consider the idea of like, okay, well, what if I took my Airbnb profits from this year, and I use them for a down payment for a second, Airbnb, all of a sudden, I could be making twice this, why stop there? Why not get four units or 10 units or 20 units. And the fact is, there is an incredible subculture that exists online that is all about Airbnb hacking and growing like crazy. And I don’t want to I again, I’m pretty fired up about this. I’m going to be speaking at length about this at both Triple Play and at NAR. So if you want to hear more about this, you want to argue with me and tell me I’m wrong. And I’m crazy. Please come do that because there’s a whole bunch more to the story. We’re just at the tip of the iceberg here.

D.J. Paris 24:28
And if you aren’t really that familiar with real estate investing, whether it is long term or short term like Airbnb, take a look at what house hacking is because this is primarily being learned about online. This is you know, regular consumers hearing about this watching discussions online, watching YouTube and Tiktok and Instagram and really under trying to understand what this process is and it’s it’s probably not spoken enough of About from realtors to their clients predominantly because we can understand that Realtors may feel that that is outside of sort of their daily sort of, to processes for working with clients, but it’s something that your clients will likely find on their own. This is just my guess. And he want to be the person that maybe has that conversation with them first, before they start getting that information elsewhere and maybe not think to ask you that professional about it.

Chris Linsell 25:28
Totally true. Totally true. This is an opportunity for clients, for consumers right now there is this new wave of consumer empowerment, the knowledge, the information, the strategies, the step by steps are all out there. And they’re being produced by more and more savvy people. You know, this, this content has been produced by more and more savvy content producers who frankly do a better job of telling the story than most real estate professionals, because you I hate to admit it, most real estate professionals, they know their contracts back and forth, but they’re shitty marketers, I’m sorry, I didn’t know if I was supposed to swear. But I just so fired up about this well allow most most real estate, I mean, let’s let’s look at most real estate agents. And I’m not talking about the top producers, who who have all of their stuff figured out perfectly. I’m talking about the other 90% of real estate agents, they have a pretty good knowledge base of the real estate industry. But they’re crummy marketers, because we’re not marketers, we’re real estate agents. And so most of us don’t know how to produce this content to give our clients the education that they need. Well Guess who’s stepping in and talking about Airbnb savvy marketers savvy production, people who are we’re putting this information out there, it is up to real estate agents. And this is my this is my call to action here on this particular tip. It is up to real estate agents in this moment. And in this scenario, to demonstrate your value to your clients in a real and tangible ways. Don’t wait for them to go to YouTube and learn about how they can produce income from a property they already own. You talk to them about that. You talked to them about the strategies they should be learning and they should be using because guess what you are their real estate adviser, not Johnny on the spot on YouTube who has no license, no liability, and absolutely no accountability, if his advice is crap, and it you know, sends your client into financial ruin, I hope that that doesn’t happen. But you have the chance to step in and be the expert here. Airbnb is going to happen, and it’s going to boom in 2020, to get ahead of that right now.

D.J. Paris 27:37
And also you just let you really never want your clients to be you’re talking about buyers, for example, you don’t want your buyer, or really or seller. But but certainly your client, you don’t want them at a cocktail party talking to their friends, they just bought or sold something. And they said, You know, I was going to do that. But my agent talked to me about city of house hacking or short term rentals and the other, your client then goes, Oh, really, I don’t know what that means, like what it tells me about that. And then all of a sudden, they’re now hearing it from a non expert source. And so I would say before you work with, especially with your buyers, definitely have that conversation before you go show them property say hey, I know we’re looking at a single family home and in a suburban neighborhood that you guys are going to live at for the next 20 years. But just in case you’re not familiar, are you are you aware of what you know, this idea of house hacking is and I just want to make sure you’re aware of it. And then you know, you guys can tell me if you want to learn more about it. But I would say that you’d be doing your clients a huge service so that they don’t feel like oh, my agent never mentioned that. That sounds kind of cool. So anyway, little extra stuff there. Before we get to our last topic, which is going to be in about an article Chris recently published on the close about seven important lessons from top producers. I want to do a quick shout out to our beloved sponsor, we are so grateful to have follow up boss supporting our show. But let me just tell you a little bit about follow up boss know after interviewing hundreds of top producers in the country. Do you know which CRM is used by more of our guests than any other while it’s 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. Don’t take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the United States uses follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar real estate business in six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 different systems. Also, this includes lead providers so you can keep your current tools and those lead sources also, they have seven day a week support, which we know is important as a realtor because you’re you know Saturdays and Sundays tend to be pretty busy for agents and if you need to get that support, you can do that from them and get this follow up boss is so sure you’re going to love their CRM that for a limit time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial. This is twice as much time as they give every other person that signs up for a free trial. And oh yeah, no credit card required. Don’t you love free trials without credit cards, and they’re, they’re just so confident you’re going to use them, they’ll let you try it for 30 days, and you’re going to end up giving them your credit card because you love it so much. But only if you use the special link which is follow up boss.com forward slash real again, follow up boss.com forward slash real visit there for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up, boss. Thank you, Chris, back to our show here. What is uh, what are some of the lessons that you have? You just recently spoke to some top producers big and these are not these are top producers that have been top producers for some time. So these are agents who are didn’t just, you know, ride some sort of wave in the last year since COVID has obviously propelled most Realtors business. These are people that have weathered some of these ups and downs. And so tell us a little bit about what you learned.

Chris Linsell 31:05
Yeah, definitely. I want to I want to tease this a little bit. Definitely kind of the kind of the close dad comm check it out. There’s an article seven important lessons new agents can learn from old school realtors. And there’s a couple of insights I just want to share. But before I do, I just want to say follow up boss, I like you guys, I really am a big fan of especially if you’re reporting your audit your your agent, accountability, your collaboration tools. i This is not a plug follow boss is not paying me to say this. I genuinely like this about them. And so I just want to throw this out there. Follow up us. Call me man, send me a tweet or something. Let’s talk a little bit because I’d like to look into what you guys are doing a little bit more. You’re doing some cool stuff. Okay, so back to back to the important lessons. I talked to some some, some top producers from across the country. I really just wanted to ask them if you had a new agent sitting in your office and you could give them one piece of advice, what would you give them. And there’s a couple of cool things that that I heard. And the first one, honestly, it kind of everything kind of starts and ends with this particular piece of advice. It’s from Eva Lin, who is a broker in Pasadena. She’s got her own boutique brokerage there. And her advice is be obsessed with your clients experience. And I just loved the words she chose here be obsessed with your clients experience, don’t just care about it. Don’t just put it on a spreadsheet somewhere where you can check a box yes or no positive or negative, be obsessed beat beat, get up at night occasionally thinking about your clients experience. Because as real estate agents, we’ve made a commitment to put our client’s needs before our own before before others we are their fiduciary here, we are shepherding them through the some of the most financially important and impactful moments of their life, you should be obsessed with the experience that they are having with you. I really thought that that was that was valuable. And it actually kind of led into another piece of advice. A guy named LINC Moser who founded a real estate group called experience home group, excuse me experience homes group in New Hampshire. He told me that if he could give agents one piece of advice it would be to base your business on relationships, and not on technology. And these two pieces of advice felt so organic with one another because I’m gonna be honest with you, I love technology. I love the tools. I love all the bells and whistles. I love platforms like you know, follow a boss and all their automation and, and analytics tools and other CRMs and email marketers and predictive analytics. This is a table I eat at and frankly, I catch my paychecks based on these guys. So I like all that stuff. But if you’re basing your business, on your tools and not on your relationships, you are only going to last so long. Businesses that are built on relationships last forever. These are the businesses you can hand down to the next generation. If you are building your business based on the you know Zillow premier agent or based on a particular CRM or on MailChimp. If that’s your business, you only have so many transactions and you know but if you build your business based on relationships, your business lasts forever.

D.J. Paris 34:43
You had so true and just to to for our listeners. Obviously we know this but I want you to think about how we absolutely know that this idea of authentic communication and authentic sort of vulnerability which really, we’re talking about intimacy here, it’s trying to try to build intimacy between you and your contacts and your clients. And here’s some evidence that this is really super prominent now in at least American culture, which just looked at the state of advertising, advertising has finally figured out that what people what what consumers want is authentic, intimate communication as best as possible between these big corporate, you know, you know, product and service providers. So you’ll see it in the advertising, you see a lot more sort of less selling and more sort of connecting and or trying to connect the Superbowl is a great example is ads tend to which the Superbowl is coming up in about, what, three or four months, and you’ll see a lot of funny ads, and you’ll see a lot of really, very sort of intimate and vulnerable ads. And those are the ads that people talk about are the funny ones and the vulnerable ones. So this is an opportunity for you to move, not necessarily away from the technology, but to realize that personal phone call, which nobody does anymore, right phone calls, I mean, realtors still do. But this idea of picking up the phone and just checking in seeing how your client or your, your previous client, call them on the home anniversary and say, Hey, remember when we first saw this house, and then a year ago, you actually closed? That was a cool day. And hey, I have a picture of that day, let me send it to you. Right, these are some really fun opportunities that technology has a hard time replicating that you can step in and do yourself. I also had one other point, Chris, I wanted to make the client experience, which was the first tip that you had from from Evelyn. That is, you know, if you’re thinking, Well, how do I get obsessed about my client experience, my suggestion would be to find some realtors in your local market, especially if you’re a new agent. And this this advice is for, of course, all agents, but specifically, the article is sort of tips from from, from experienced producers to new agents, find people that are experienced, and if it was me, I would grab a notebook. And I would say, okay, you know, there’s seven steps in the home buying process, or however many steps you’ve identified and same thing with home selling. And I would talk to these experienced agents and say, what are the most common questions, concerns and feelings that people hit on every one of these steps? And what do you recommend that I say to preemptively sort of address these so that the client isn’t laying at night, worried about this and maybe embarrassed to ask me or just doesn’t think to ask me, because if you’re obsessed with your client experience, you’re obsessed with what they’re going through every step of the process? And so if you’re new, and you’re like, I don’t really know, well, of course, you don’t know, ask people who are ask your managing broker, ask, you know, Shadow somebody, but just sit and get take some notes. And if you can know that, then when you hit those particular stages in a transaction, you can just literally follow the script that you’ve created and say, hey, at this step, a lot of my clients start to get a little nervous about XY and Z, or they start to feel a certain way. And I want to just go through, you know, and you can kind of go from there. But just having that conversation means you’re obsessed with the client experience. And it kind of goes back to that same quiet suggestion that about telling your clients about Airbnb and house hacking, like if you’re not doing it, they might be experiencing it on their own, and then you don’t have control over how they experienced it.

Chris Linsell 38:27
Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt, without a doubt. It’s, I mean, honestly, this conversation starts and ends with with this point here, there’s a lot of other stuff we can talk about in between. And you should definitely check out the article. There’s a lot of good information here from really cool people who are doing really cool stuff in their business. But at the end of the day, the best advice that that old school agents have for new for new Realtors is be obsessed with that client experience, build your business around those relationships, and you will your business will last forever.

D.J. Paris 39:00
And I should mention too, we have a link to this article in the show notes. So feel free to to find it there or just visit the closed.com. But I will mention in this article. This is particularly interesting because Chris said that this article idea came from a conversation that that Chris had with one of the close pro members and with it’s a really good place to talk about what the close Pro is and why our listeners should consider checking it out.

Chris Linsell 39:30
Yeah, absolutely. If you are new to the clothes, welcome. Come on over the clothes.com super easy, but all sorts of great information there. tons of content that’s going to help you level up your real estate business. If you want to take that to the next level. You can check out the clothes pro the clothes Pro is our premium subscription service. It’s 35 bucks a month, or the equivalent of $25 a month. If you if you go with the annual package. And with the clothes pro you get this incredible resource library that is packed full of dozens of scripts and templates and long form strategy guides, you get access to all of our most popular courses, like six simple systems to transform your real estate business, our most recent course, which is extraordinarily popular, we’re getting a ton of awesome feedback on our Facebook and Instagram Crash Course. Get in there, learn about Facebook and Instagram and figure out what you’re doing wrong. Get started all together. There’s so much cool stuff. And this particular course, is taught by by two women, Sophia and Sarah. And these two, their their energy is literally so infectious. I watched the recording after they did this live. And I was pumped up just from the recording. I mean, there’s just so much really high quality stuff happening in the close pro 35 bucks a month, you get access to all of this stuff, come try it out for a month or if you’re ready to dive in, make that annual that annual commitment. And we are adding new courses, new things to the resource library. And of course on demand, and live coaching sessions with me with other real estate other coaches that we’ve got at the close Pro, there is so much happening there. So if you want to take your business and your clothes experience to the next level, come check us out on the closed Pro and we can’t wait to see you there.

D.J. Paris 41:28
Awesome. Well, everyone who is listening, if you are heading out to triple play on the East Coast, or to the NAR conference in San Diego, this this November, definitely look up Chris, he is one of the speakers at both of those events, both those conferences, and I will also be roaming around as a participant like you like our listeners. So if you want to meet me and say hi, I will be available as well just shoot us shoot us a message. And we would both like to say hi to you. And on behalf of our listeners we want interviewers, I want to thank Chris As per usual, he’s been with us for many years. Now, I think a couple at least. And he always brings amazing content to our show, we are super grateful. And clearly he provides great content because again, he is speaking at three conferences here in the next month and a half or so. So we’re super honored to also have him giving up his his valuable time to be on our show. So thank you, Chris, as per usual from myself, and of course the rest of the audience. And on behalf of Chris and myself, we want to thank the audience for continuing to support the clothes by visiting, subscribing to their newsletter, checking out the clothes, a pro and just reading their articles. They’re so incredibly good. They’re really from our from my perspective, as a marketer. They’re the best, you know, sort of marketing branding. And it’s not just marketing and branding. But that is a good chunk of what they do is really designed around you building your business and a lot about customer experience as well. They just write about everything that’s important to know, as a realtor, and they’re really I think, are really the best resource out there. And it’s free, like 99% of it is free. So go check it out. So on behalf of the audience, we think Chris, and on behalf of Chris and myself, we thank the audience. And by the way, please also help support our sponsor, follow up boss by checking out that free trial that’s keeping sorry, that is follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. And check out the clothes.com and we will see everybody on the next episode. And if you are heading to Nar just let us know we’d like to say hi. So thanks, Chris.

Chris Linsell 43:35
You’re welcome DJ, I forgot to mention we have I have a special offer that I wanted to throw out there. If you are interested in the clothes Pro, we just got this set up on Friday. Sorry, I forgot to mention that before. You can go to the clothes.com/chris. And you can get $50 off an annual membership. It’ll give you give you some more information about the clothes pro clothes.com/chris CHR is 50 bucks off an annual membership. This is something we want to do for for you here at keeping it real and anybody who comes to comes and checks this stuff out, talk to me about it, come use my promo code, get 50 bucks off on me.

D.J. Paris 44:17
And that’s like a month and a half free so or close to a month free. So basically even even better deal. So yeah, and we will have that link in the show notes. But again, that’s the close.com forward slash Chris for your $50 off annual membership. So check it out, guys. It’s worth it. It just is awesome, Chris. Well, thanks so much. We thank everyone for listening and watching and we will see you next time.

Chris Linsell 44:43
Thanks, TJ. See you soon