Real Estate Uncensored - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Training Podcast

Some people look at things like Facebook ads and video content related to our listings as doing more than what’s required. What is the difference between being active and passive when it comes to selling a home? What is our role as agents in getting a home sold? What determines whether a home gets sold and how much control do we have over it? On this episode, we talk about what every agent worth their commission should be doing and why this stuff makes a difference.

The underlying idea that if we just deliver great service everything will take care of itself is a reassuring lie. -Matt Johnson  

Three Things We Learned

Why the best product doesn’t always sell the most

We tell ourselves the lie that the best product is what sells most but this is usually never true. The product that gets to first in our minds wins. The listing agent who dominates the neighbourhood wins, even if they suck.

Why you have to think of the home as a product

Crappy pictures that don’t show off interesting and compelling photos of the features of the property won’t sell the home. You want to make sure people have a good first impression of the home because no matter how good you are as a salesperson, if you can’t make the house look good on the MLS, you’re wasting your time.  

How to set ourselves apart

Getting as many potential buyers into the house at the same time in the shortest period of time is one of the things we can do to set ourselves apart in the market.

Being passive in marketing a listing is basically putting it up on the MLS and just hoping someone sees it. Anything you can do to create buzz is going to be active and that means putting on your marketing strategist hat and working with the seller to put that house in the best position as a product and so when you do put it on the MLS it attracts the right people. That’s part of what we’re being paid to do. Not doing this means we just won’t sell anything, no matter how good we are.  

If we’re thinking of freeing up more of our time, chatbots are a great way to automate our marketing efforts, but we have to be careful not to turn them into virtual answering machines. What are some of the ways people are misusing chatbots? How do we build rapport, and find the people that are worth talking to and who is really motivated? On this episode, marketing expert Zach Hammer shares how we can get the most out chatbots.

Don’t think of chatbots as automating communication. Think of them as a way more effective landing page. -Zach Hammer  

Three Things We Learned

People are misusing chat bots to automate conversations that people aren't interested in having.

Just because chatbots make it possible for us to to automate conversations, that doesn’t mean we should put every single conversation on them. We shouldn’t automate conversations people don’t have or even want to have in the real world because we won’t get results.

Why you don't need all the bells and whistles on chatbots to be effective

Having success in chatbots is about simplicity. If we can take an existing landing page and put the information collecting sequence in a chatbot, we can drastically increase conversion. It’s simple and effective.

You can use Facebook targeting to exclude other real estate agents from your ads

Have available a ready list of interests that will indicate someone is a real estate agent. These could be thought leaders, books they read, things they watch and podcasts they listen to.  

In the audience section when you’re setting up an ad, there’s a part that has the option to exclude. You can exclude by interest and filter out 80% to 90 of real estate agents.

The biggest mistake being made in the realm of chatbots is over-complicating them and overthinking what we can do with them. Chatbots can be leveraged as drastically more effective landing page. If you replace your landing page with a chatbox sequence designed to collect the same information, upwards of 70% of people convert. This can allow us to really reach the people we want to and talk to them on a more relevant level.  

Guest Bio

Zach is the founder of Real Estate Growth Hackers. He is a real estate marketing consultant, productivity coach, author and lead gen wizard. See a Chat Bot in Action & Get a Free Welcome Bot Template at bit.ly/reubots.

If we’re thinking of freeing up more of our time, chatbots are a great way to automate our marketing efforts, but we have to be careful not to turn them into virtual answering machines. What are some of the ways people are misusing chatbots? How do we build rapport, and find the people that are worth talking to and who is really motivated? On this episode, marketing expert Zach Hammer shares how we can get the most out chatbots.

Don’t think of chatbots as automating communication. Think of them as a way more effective landing page. -Zach Hammer  

Three Things We Learned

People are misusing chat bots to automate conversations that people aren't interested in having.

Just because chatbots make it possible for us to to automate conversations, that doesn’t mean we should put every single conversation on them. We shouldn’t automate conversations people don’t have or even want to have in the real world because we won’t get results.

Why you don't need all the bells and whistles on chatbots to be effective

Having success in chatbots is about simplicity. If we can take an existing landing page and put the information collecting sequence in a chatbot, we can drastically increase conversion. It’s simple and effective.

You can use Facebook targeting to exclude other real estate agents from your ads

Have available a ready list of interests that will indicate someone is a real estate agent. These could be thought leaders, books they read, things they watch and podcasts they listen to.  

In the audience section when you’re setting up an ad, there’s a part that has the option to exclude. You can exclude by interest and filter out 80% to 90 of real estate agents.

The biggest mistake being made in the realm of chatbots is over-complicating them and overthinking what we can do with them. Chatbots can be leveraged as drastically more effective landing page. If you replace your landing page with a chatbox sequence designed to collect the same information, upwards of 70% of people convert. This can allow us to really reach the people we want to and talk to them on a more relevant level.  

Guest Bio

Zach is the founder of Real Estate Growth Hackers. He is a real estate marketing consultant, productivity coach, author and lead gen wizard. See a Chat Bot in Action & Get a Free Welcome Bot Template at bit.ly/reubots.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is being too general about the local areas we serve. How do we go from a more general local area to a hyper-focused area? How small should our local area be? What are the three things we need to do to put this strategy to work? On this episode, Dan Lesniak is back to talk about how to get more out of the areas we serve.

Look at segments in the market and pick the ones you want to target and then come up with a way to position yourself to add more value. -Dan Lesniak

Three Things We Learned

Why this is a perfect time of the year to maximize our business

This window of time just after Thanksgiving is still far away from Christmas that people aren’t tied up in holiday stuff yet and enough time before the New Year that you could still make an impact. And it’s not so far enough from 2019 that you’re still focused on 2018. So it’s a great time to maximize and optimize.

How to find out more about ads on Facebook

You can now go onto someone’s Facebook page and on the left hand side click info and ads and see all the ads they are running.  You can counter their strategy with your own or get some ideas. You can even show it to sellers on your own page so they see all the marketing work you’re doing, and how you would market their home.

The importance of choosing your local area wisely

Gary Vee advises us to use social media to become the mayors of our local area. Where people go off course is choosing an area that’s too big to try and be the mayor of. We have to make sure we pick an area that’s small enough for our strategy to work and still big enough for us to actually get business out of it.

In real estate one of the most powerful things we can do is showcase our knowledge of a local area. It instantly positions us as experts. To achieve this, first we have to segment the area we would want to serve, next we have to target our marketing towards them, and then position ourselves by adding value.

Guest Bio

Dan is the founder of the Orange Line Living Team, and author of The HyperLocal, HyperFast Real Estate Agent. Since beginning his career in real estate in 2011, Dan Lesniak has quickly become one of the top producing real estate agents in the country, helping hundreds of buyers and sellers complete over $250 million in sales. He utilizes his unique experiences and backgrounds to create programs for clients that reverse the risk in real estate. The Orange Line Living Team that Dan has founded has specialists and systems in place to make the entire spectrum of the real estate process as seamless as possible for clients.

Dan is hosting the Hyper Fast Sales Bootcamp. Go to http://hyperfastsalesbootcamp.com to book your tickets. Use this promo code to get an exclusive discount: REU25.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is being too general about the local areas we serve. How do we go from a more general local area to a hyper-focused area? How small should our local area be? What are the three things we need to do to put this strategy to work? On this episode, Dan Lesniak is back to talk about how to get more out of the areas we serve.

Look at segments in the market and pick the ones you want to target and then come up with a way to position yourself to add more value. -Dan Lesniak

Three Things We Learned

Why this is a perfect time of the year to maximize our business

This window of time just after Thanksgiving is still far away from Christmas that people aren’t tied up in holiday stuff yet and enough time before the New Year that you could still make an impact. And it’s not so far enough from 2019 that you’re still focused on 2018. So it’s a great time to maximize and optimize.

How to find out more about ads on Facebook

You can now go onto someone’s Facebook page and on the left hand side click info and ads and see all the ads they are running.  You can counter their strategy with your own or get some ideas. You can even show it to sellers on your own page so they see all the marketing work you’re doing, and how you would market their home.

The importance of choosing your local area wisely

Gary Vee advises us to use social media to become the mayors of our local area. Where people go off course is choosing an area that’s too big to try and be the mayor of. We have to make sure we pick an area that’s small enough for our strategy to work and still big enough for us to actually get business out of it.

In real estate one of the most powerful things we can do is showcase our knowledge of a local area. It instantly positions us as experts. To achieve this, first we have to segment the area we would want to serve, next we have to target our marketing towards them, and then position ourselves by adding value.

Guest Bio

Dan is the founder of the Orange Line Living Team, and author of The HyperLocal, HyperFast Real Estate Agent. Since beginning his career in real estate in 2011, Dan Lesniak has quickly become one of the top producing real estate agents in the country, helping hundreds of buyers and sellers complete over $250 million in sales. He utilizes his unique experiences and backgrounds to create programs for clients that reverse the risk in real estate. The Orange Line Living Team that Dan has founded has specialists and systems in place to make the entire spectrum of the real estate process as seamless as possible for clients.

Dan is hosting the Hyper Fast Sales Bootcamp. Go to http://hyperfastsalesbootcamp.com to book your tickets. Use this promo code to get an exclusive discount: REU25.

Instagram is the perfect medium for showing off beautiful listings. People come on platforms like Instagram to be visually engaged. But how can you advertise a home that doesn’t quite look like it would attract any attention? What kind of content doesn’t belong on the platform? And what is the one question you should ask yourself before you hit “publish”? In this episode, Dustin Brohm talks about the #1 mistake agents make on Instagram and what you should do instead!

If you can’t get clients yourself, you have no longevity in this industry. - Dustin Brohm

Three Things We Learned

Don’t post flyers and brochures

Flyers and brochures aren’t formatted for Instagram, and unless users zoom in, the content won’t be readable. But people usually scroll down when they see something that doesn’t grab their attention, and if you constantly post brochures that nobody is interested in, your audience might unfollow you.

How to make photography work for Instagram

You can make photography work for Instagram even if the home you’re trying to promote doesn’t look top notch. Instead of posting photos with the house, post photos with a nearby park, neighborhood, or other attractions that give your audience an idea of how beautiful the location is.

Nostalgia is an attention grabber

Photos of old toys, amusement parks, or anything that brings back memories from your audience’s childhood will draw attention to your social media content.

Instagram is all about grabbing the attention of the viewer. But if you flood your feed with content that gets ignored, there’s a dangerous side effect: the algorithm and your audiences learn to ignore you. On social media, it’s better to invest your time in fewer but quality posts than to inundate other people’s feeds with information that not even you would be interested in reading.

Guest Bio

Dustin Brohm is a Realtor in Salt Lake, Utah, the host Massive Agent Podcast, and a national speaker and trainer. He is a marketer at heart that used technology to make his brand a client magnet in his area. In the present, he shares his knowledge about digital marketing, advertising, and branding on his podcast and at speaking events.

You can find out more about Dustin here.

Instagram is the perfect medium for showing off beautiful listings. People come on platforms like Instagram to be visually engaged. But how can you advertise a home that doesn’t quite look like it would attract any attention? What kind of content doesn’t belong on the platform? And what is the one question you should ask yourself before you hit “publish”? In this episode, Dustin Brohm talks about the #1 mistake agents make on Instagram and what you should do instead!

If you can’t get clients yourself, you have no longevity in this industry. - Dustin Brohm

Three Things We Learned

Don’t post flyers and brochures

Flyers and brochures aren’t formatted for Instagram, and unless users zoom in, the content won’t be readable. But people usually scroll down when they see something that doesn’t grab their attention, and if you constantly post brochures that nobody is interested in, your audience might unfollow you.

How to make photography work for Instagram

You can make photography work for Instagram even if the home you’re trying to promote doesn’t look top notch. Instead of posting photos with the house, post photos with a nearby park, neighborhood, or other attractions that give your audience an idea of how beautiful the location is.

Nostalgia is an attention grabber

Photos of old toys, amusement parks, or anything that brings back memories from your audience’s childhood will draw attention to your social media content.

Instagram is all about grabbing the attention of the viewer. But if you flood your feed with content that gets ignored, there’s a dangerous side effect: the algorithm and your audiences learn to ignore you. On social media, it’s better to invest your time in fewer but quality posts than to inundate other people’s feeds with information that not even you would be interested in reading.

Guest Bio

Dustin Brohm is a Realtor in Salt Lake, Utah, the host Massive Agent Podcast, and a national speaker and trainer. He is a marketer at heart that used technology to make his brand a client magnet in his area. In the present, he shares his knowledge about digital marketing, advertising, and branding on his podcast and at speaking events.

You can find out more about Dustin here.

Not all agents enjoy prospecting, and some of them aren’t even good at it. What happens when your strength is building relationships as opposed to cold calls? How do referrals work, and why do people give referrals in the first place? How can you flip the script and make the referral be all about how your clients benefit from recommending you? In this episode, Chad Durfee talks how he build his business on relationships and referrals.

Not everyone is going to refer you. So the trick is to identify the potential referral centers. -Chad Durfee

Three Things We Learned

Don’t make the referrals about you

When you ask about referrals for your own interests, it’s very hard to get them, Instead, you should flip the script and make referrals about clients and how them referring you makes helps their sphere.

When you get recommended, you have a big advantage over other agents

Working with referrals is far easier because the trust is already there. Plus, if you’re referred, there isn’t the risk of having your work taken away by another agent who has convinced your client that they can do a better job.

Your clients want to validate their decision of working with you

People seek to validate their buying decisions, and one of the ways they do this is by sharing what services or products they purchased in order to receive feedback. As agents, we have to be aware that in the first days after a new client works with us, they’re in doubt about their decision, so they need feedback from other people. This is the best time to start the conversation about referrals because your client wants their family to give them an opinion about his agent.

Your clients will only refer you if they believe your expertise will make them look good in their social sphere and increase their status. When you deliver an excellent customer experience to a referral, the client who referred you will be seen in a favorable light as well. To make the deal even sweeter for the client who refers you, and to encourage a stream of referrals, encourage your current client to sign a thank you card and send it to the person who recommended you. This way, the client who sends you the referral will feel flattered and encouraged to make a recommendation in the future as well.

Guest Bio

Chad Durfee is the owner of Referral Consulting, Inc., where he teaches individual agents and teams how to put systems and processes in place to maximize their referability.

He created the Referral Academy Mastery Program, R.A.M.P., to teach others how to not only keep their clients for a lifetime but also spend fewer hours on prospecting and more time actually closing deals.

If you want to find out more about Chad’s programs, click here.

Not all agents enjoy prospecting, and some of them aren’t even good at it. What happens when your strength is building relationships as opposed to cold calls? How do referrals work, and why do people give referrals in the first place? How can you flip the script and make the referral be all about how your clients benefit from recommending you? In this episode, Chad Durfee talks how he build his business on relationships and referrals.

Not everyone is going to refer you. So the trick is to identify the potential referral centers. -Chad Durfee

Three Things We Learned

Don’t make the referrals about you

When you ask about referrals for your own interests, it’s very hard to get them, Instead, you should flip the script and make referrals about clients and how them referring you makes helps their sphere.

When you get recommended, you have a big advantage over other agents

Working with referrals is far easier because the trust is already there. Plus, if you’re referred, there isn’t the risk of having your work taken away by another agent who has convinced your client that they can do a better job.

Your clients want to validate their decision of working with you

People seek to validate their buying decisions, and one of the ways they do this is by sharing what services or products they purchased in order to receive feedback. As agents, we have to be aware that in the first days after a new client works with us, they’re in doubt about their decision, so they need feedback from other people. This is the best time to start the conversation about referrals because your client wants their family to give them an opinion about his agent.

Your clients will only refer you if they believe your expertise will make them look good in their social sphere and increase their status. When you deliver an excellent customer experience to a referral, the client who referred you will be seen in a favorable light as well. To make the deal even sweeter for the client who refers you, and to encourage a stream of referrals, encourage your current client to sign a thank you card and send it to the person who recommended you. This way, the client who sends you the referral will feel flattered and encouraged to make a recommendation in the future as well.

Guest Bio

Chad Durfee is the owner of Referral Consulting, Inc., where he teaches individual agents and teams how to put systems and processes in place to maximize their referability.

He created the Referral Academy Mastery Program, R.A.M.P., to teach others how to not only keep their clients for a lifetime but also spend fewer hours on prospecting and more time actually closing deals.

If you want to find out more about Chad’s programs, click here.

Successful teams are built on the shoulders of hard-working agents. But what kind of agents perform best in a team setting? Should you look for top agents or newer agents that need training? What role does having a system in place play in reducing costs and delivering an excellent customer experience? In this episode, Dave Pannell talks about how he leveraged his team to close over 100 deals per year.

The people I surround myself with is my market share. -Dave Pannell

Three Things We Learned

Not all agents are team players

You have to bring in people who want to be part of a team and respect the team’s rules. Many agents choose real estate because they want to do everything by themselves, but this isn’t possible in a team setting.

Why agents need to have a system to plug into right after they get hired

Don’t bring agents on just because you have more leads that you can handle. Bring new agents on when you have the systems in place where you can just plug people and they know what they need to do on a daily basis. This way, there’s less time spent on teaching the agents what to do.

Why we shouldn’t look to build a team with only top agents

The most stable real estate businesses are based on people who want steady, slow growth, not on rainmakers who might leave the team at some point.

One of the biggest mistakes team leaders and business owners make is searching for agents who were just like them in the beginning. But you have to recognize the fact that top agents don’t usually perform well in a team setting, and most of them will end up starting their own team at some point. What team leaders should look for are people who have a more modest goal and are uncomfortable with the idea of working by themselves but can still make consistent sales.

Guest Bio

Dave Pannell is the broker and the CEO of Cities Real Estate. He has served in The U.S. Marine Corps, and in 2005 he started his real estate journey.

Today, he leads a new breed of agents that take advantage of technology and digital marketing to generate leads and close more sales.

You can find out more about Dave here.