Real Estate Uncensored - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Training Podcast

Check out our latest episode where we interview Justin Moy, an agent just reaching one full year in the business, and see how he is aggressively prospecting for clients to grow his fledgling business.

Justin shared his daily schedule, including how he plans his prospecting, when he makes the bulk of his outbound calls, when he follows up and how he spends his afternoon flex time.

He also shared how he uses a simple spreadsheet to track metrics like list-to-sale price ratio (currently at a whopping 107% of list price) and his sale-to-list price on the buy side (currently at 98%) and how he uses those figures to his advantage in listing and buyer presentations.

Justin also outlined his journey of finding his ideal client, moving from first-time homebuyers to young homeowners/condo-owners to his current ideal clients, Expired and FSBO seller clients in their 30's and 40's. We discussed how Justin uses stats and research to overcome his youth and position himself as an expert to completely eliminate the objection of his age or length of time in the industry.

If you're new to the business, this episode is a perfect place to start for actionable ideas and inspiration to hit the ground running and aggressively build your business!

Special guest Matt Clawson, Realtor and contributing writer to Houzz.com, joins us to share his insights into writing for real estate publications, including where he gets ideas, the writing and editing process and how to get your articles published.

Matt also shared some lessons drawn from his writing experience, such as contributing to Inman magazine and writing email and sales page copy, as well as ideas for capitalizing on your published articles by incorporating them into your marketing.

We also answered a couple questions on how to follow up with future seller leads, and how to pre-qualify a potential seller before investing time doing a CMA or listing presentation.

The world responds to action. The world doesn’t respond to dreaming, it doesn’t respond to goal-setting, it doesn’t respond to anything that goes on up here, it only responds to action. . -Matt Johnson


It’s that time of year for agents to set wildly optimistic goals for their business in 2016. And that’s the topic of our latest episode- What’s the best approach to goal setting? Do you Go Big or Go Home? Do you set rituals and routines to change your daily behavior and let the chips fall? We debate that topic in our latest episode.

3 Takeaways:

1. Your BIG WHY must be stronger than the pain of change in order to reach your Big Hairy Audacious Goal
2. The world responds to ACTION.
3. Do something today that you’ll thank yourself for tomorrow.

Before the debate we answered a couple questions on how to handle seller objections such as “We may sell it ourselves and list on Zillow” and “We’ll probably list with an agent we know who is more experienced.”
We then opened the debate with each of us giving our overall views on goal setting. Greg’s approach is to set Big Hairy Audacious Goals and stay in touch with his Big Why through visualization. Matt’s approach is to focus on realistic, attainable goals he can commit to 100%, and turning those into rituals and routines that propel him to success.
We also debated dreams versus goals, visualizing by using a Dream Book or vision board, our favorite books on goal setting, and shared some new tech tools Greg discovered on a Blab earlier that morning.

So what’s the best goal-setting approach for you? The answer is simple...whatever gets you to take ACTION. Whatever approach you choose, make sure to spend this holiday season thinking about what you really want in 2016, figure out how to get there, set a plan for daily action, and then get started!

Show Highlights:

5:45 Question: How to handle the objection: “We may sell it ourselves and list it on Zillow”
9:00 Devil’s advocate- How does the average agent SHOW a potential client they are better equipped than another agent to sell their home?
12:45 Question: How to handle a seller who objects to your lack of experience, wants to go with an agent with 20 years in the business (hint: the answer isn’t lay down with your tail between your legs)
16:00 Script: “I do everything a normal Realtor does, PLUS these X things…”
19:50 Greg’s opening statement- Be realistic AND optimistic - Look Big and long-term - BHAG’s -
21:06 Matt’s opening statement- Focus on what you control and what you’re actually willing to commit to - Don’t set goals that aren’t rooted in real behavior change - Use big thinking as a creative exercise
23:45 Entrepreneur Memory and how it allows entrepreneurs to continue setting big goals and believe the next thing will be a huge success
24:50 How to incorporate big thinking with a ritualistic pursuit of realistic, attainable goals - The role of ACTION in achieving your goals
27:55 What to do when the emotional high of setting your Big Hairy Audacious Goal fades - Why you must know your Big Why
30:15 Difference between goals and dreams, and the role of dreams in your daily behavior - Greg’s Dream Book
32:10 Set goals you can 100% commit to and based on actions that are completely within your control - “Conference High” and how to deal with the emotional dip that comes after a big goal setting experience
35:30 Book recommendations - practical goal setting that changes your daily action - the world responds to action.
39:12 Do something today that you’ll thank yourself for tomorrow - using visualization to keep yourself motivated and taking daily action
42:40 Setting goals that are within your control
46:42 Tech Tip: XSplit, Katch.me and EyeJot

Holiday parties are an excellent opportunity to meet new potential clients and position yourself as the neighborhood expert. In our latest episode we shared how to interact with people at holiday parties in a non-salesy way, how to answer the "How's the market?" question in a way that positions you as a consultant (not a used car salesman), and how to exchange information with people you meet and follow up.

We also kicked off the episode by answering a couple questions on how to promote broker tours and using cell phones with triple-line dialers. Google Hangouts glitched toward the end of the episode, so you may not hear the second round of shout-outs. Thanks Google!

Working a farm means staying in front of prospects and putting yourself in position to compete for the listings that are up for grabs. Email and social media, paired with leveraging your time with tech tools and services, will help keep you top of mind in your farm.

In our latest episode we shared options for email newsletters, non-real estate related emails and automatic email campaigns for specific types of prospects. Then we shared social media tactics and tools that leverage your time and allow you to keep in touch with people in your farm effectively.

With so many social media networks and types of content, it can be overwhelming to find your niche and generate actual leads through social media.

In our latest live episode we shared The Four Knows of social media:

Know Your Ideal Client - Who are they, what social networks are they on, etc.

Know Your Content- what's important/exciting to you outside real estate, whats important/exciting to your target market

Know Your Personality- Be goofy, be controversial, whatever, just don't be boring.

Know Your Medium- If you want to build an audience on a social media network, your posts have to be perfectly adapted to that medium. You can't treat every medium as another Facebook.

How do some top agents generate hundreds of leads through postcards and mailers?

Marketing consistency is the key, and in our latest live episode, special guest Chris Burnley, CEO of Corefact, shared how you can dominate your farm by sending personalized postcards linked to trackable home value sites, combined with a follow up system of calls or door-knocking.

3 Key Takeaways

We started by sharing how top agents approach their direct mail campaigns, starting with their monthly budget, their target market, their message and Call-to-Action to their online components and follow up systems. Your follow up system could be the difference between a massively successful direct mail campaign or a total failure, and top agents have great follow up systems in place before any postcard goes out.

Greg then shared what’s working for his team in the Bay Area, showing examples of their actual current postcards, including the messaging and personalized map that makes their postcards so compelling to homeowners who receive them.

Then Chris shared some of the common misconceptions and mistakes agent make with direct mail, including the “cutesy” marketing and large, one-off campaigns, and weak calls-to-action. Over years of testing, “home value estimate” calls-to-action have proven most effective in generating real, trackable responses. Agents often fail at direct mail because they make the marketing about them, when it should be about the homeowner.

We talked about how to get started with direct mail, minimum number of homes to market to and the budget required, and how to follow up on your direct mail campaigns with door-knocking and follow up calls to create the ultimate listing lead gen system.

We finished by talking about mailers in the context of dominating your farm over the long run, and how to “domino” the success of one listing or one sale into many more. The key is to look at every listing or sale as the part of the marketing process, not an event. This a universal marketing principle, and if you think in these terms, you’ll give yourself a huge advantage over other agents who don’t maximize every listing, every Open House or every sale.

Done well, direct mail can be the foundation of your lead generation efforts and help you establish a solid 15-20% market share in your chosen area for years to come. If you have a long-term outlook, a set amount to invest each month and a solid farm area with good turnover, you can become the dominant agent in your farm in just a few years, maybe even months. So get out there and start dominating!

Show Highlights

3:30 The secret sauce that separates the top producers from those who fail at direct mail marketing- Consistency, commitment, and follow-up
6:00 Elements of successful direct mail- Personalization, Clear message, Clear call to action, and Follow-up
10:30 Sending a homeowner a message that’s important to them- Messaging that works in low inventory environments
15:10 The ultimate listing lead generation system- Combining door-knocking with direct mail and a consistent follow up system.
18:50 Why stick with old school marketing that’s been proven to work rather than chasing everything that’s new- Have a plan and trust that the plan is going to work
20:15 Why 300 homes is a good minimum number for direct mail - minimum effective spend to get started
24:30 Why direct mail is becoming even more effective as social media becomes more popular - the problem with digital campaigns and the impact of a direct mail campaign on your door-knocking efforts
33:50 How to leverage success through Just Listed/Just Sold/Open House direct mail and domino one success into many more and build your brand recognition in your farm
37:30 Why a listing or a sale is not the goal, it’s just part of the overall farming process - the goal is to dominate your market over time
38:40 Subtle ways top agents maximize their marketing potential in their target neighborhood
44:05 The secret is in follow up that has the right cadence for your market- the better your “back end” follow up system is, the more chances you can afford to take on the “front end” - your lead generation systems - People respect diligence
46:25 How to get testimonials and then leverage that content to help close leads

Holding Open Houses in your farm gives you multiple opportunities to meet potential clients and build your reputation as the neighborhood expert, and there are many ways to capitalize on an Open House.

In our latest episode we shared our favorite ways to combine high-tech methods like native videos on Facebook and virtual open houses on Periscope, with high-touch methods like neighbors-only Open Houses, door-knocking and calls to drive targeted traffic and capitalize on your Open Houses to attract new clients.

Prospecting doesn't have to be painful, uncomfortable and full of rejection. There are multiple levels of prospecting - cold, warm and hot - based on what level of relationship or connection you share with a potential client.

In our latest episode we broke down a multitude of prospecting options and methods, and gave you strategies to apply those methods to different levels of potential clients.

3 Takeaways

There are multiple "pain levels" of prospecting - And every agent can find a pain level they're comfortable with, and pain also refers to the level of relationship you have with a potential client.

Each pain level has some unique prospecting methods - however, many methods can be tweaked to serve multiple pain levels.

You can use technology for a variety of purposes, but it will replace or outperform high-touch methods like phone calls and pop-by's.

We talked about prospecting methods ranging from old school techniques like outbound calls and door-knocking to high-tech options like Blab.im, SlyDial, Google Hangouts, BombBomb videos sent via text and much more.

We even shared how to use Zillow's Make Me Move feature as a 'secret MLS,' what other top agents around the country are doing for lead follow up, and methods for keeping in touch with your sphere of influence through Facebook and happy birthday videos.

Now that you have your menu of prospecting methods, and the pain levels they fall into, just pick the prospecting methods that work for your comfort level and get out there and start meeting potential clients!

Show Highlights

8:54 Prospecting doesn't have to be painful and uncomfortable - Options for Cold Prospecting
12:00 Why "cold" means your prospect's level of comfort and relationship with you - How prospects move from cold to warm and hot
18:00 How to use Zillow's Make Me Move feature as a secret MLS
22:00 Warm prospecting- Pop-by's and Greg's other favorite warm prospecting methods
24:25 What top agents do for warm prospecting and lead follow up
27:25 More options for warm prospecting- Sending personal happy birthday videos via social media
29:30 Hot prospecting- Sphere of influence, past clients, anyone you have a basic relationship where they know who you are and what you do - Options for hot prospecting
33:30 Keeping in touch via FB by uploading segmented lists of contacts and commenting/liking posts on a regular basis - Handwritten notes and how Greg used to get Thank You notes for his Thank You notes

Stop chasing clients and start growing them. One of the best ways to grow clients is by building a platform and putting out content on a regular basis. Done right, your platform works 24/7 to position you as the neighborhood expert, blow away your competition and attract your ideal client. In our latest episode we covered the main ways to build a platform for real estate agents, and the mediums you can use - written, audio and video content.

Key Takeaways

1. Find your medium first - What you are most drawn to and best equipped to produce- written, audio or video content.
Set a regular schedule to put out content- Whatever you decide to do, do it consistently

2. Make it easy on yourself to create content - watch what top agents are putting out and look for opportunities in your daily life to share information that people in your farm will be interested in

We started by sharing Greg’s story of transitioning from very traditional farming, with door-knocking, mailers and brand marketing like moving trucks, over to video blogging, email newsletters and other high-tech forms of marketing. Then we outlined what a “platform” is and why you should build one and start putting out content.

We talked about how to pull together your own email list from different sources, why use LinkedIn to build your email list, and why you shouldn’t worry about sending your content out to your entire contact list.

Then we shared how to get started with a written blog, some options for hyper-local and micro-niche blogging to position yourself as an expert, and explained why consistency is so important when it comes to your platform. We moved on to audio blogging, also known as podcasting, gave you the optimal running time for a podcast and shared some options to outsource the technical work and get your podcast syndicated to iTunes.

Next we went deep into video blogging, screensharing Greg’s actual Bay Area Real Estate Video Blog, including all the different topics Greg has covered and video series he’s produced, which range from market updates and local business profiles to “Why You’re Wrong About Real Estate” a series of myth-busting videos for buyers and sellers. We also shared how to use native video on Facebook and how to use social media networks as your platform rather than your own website.

We finished by giving the key to dominating a farm area with blogging and two different FREE sites where you can detailed stats, demographics and interesting market information to share. This is a topic that’s near and dear to both of us, so we had a lot of fun while covering a lot of ground. We know there’s a lot of options and it can be a little overwhelming if you’re a solo agent, so our best advice is just Get Started!

Show Highlights

4:25 Shout-out to listeners and people who have reached out to Greg for personal advice
6:21 Greg’s transition from traditional farming to building a video blog platform to communicate with their past clients and farm areas
9:00 Don’t be scared to email your content to your entire contact list - Those who aren’t interested will unsubscribe (and it’s usually a low percentage)
11:45 Written Blog- options include area-specific, community or farm area, or niche topics such as school districts, youth sports, churches or other hyper-local topics
14:50 The key to blogging is consistency
16:15 Audio blogging, or podcasting, and options such as turning your videos into podcasts, using Soundcloud to publish your audio, or using Libsyn to syndicate to iTunes
20:15 The optimal time for a podcast is 22 minutes
21:00 SCREENSHARE: Greg’s Bay Area Real Estate Video blog, including the topics Greg uses in his videos, including market updates, myth-busting videos for buyers and sellers, testimonials, local business spotlights, community events, etc.
27:45 More ideas for local videos - School profiles, local business and non-profit profiles, public service announcements (weather, potholes, etc.) contests, client appreciation parties and more
31:00 Greg’s experience posting New Listing and Open House videos straight to Facebook, using Periscope and Blab.im
35:27 Using a social media network as your platform rather than a website or blog - What to talk about in your videos or blog posts
39:14 The key to dominating a farm area with blogging - Two different FREE sites where you can get detailed stats and demographics information you can share on your platform