Real Estate Uncensored - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Training Podcast

We start with a quick question on Zestimates and how Todd got into a Twitter war with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. Todd pointed out that the Zestimate was about 60% high on Rascoff’s own house in Seattle, which recently sold for 700,000 below the Zestimate. Todd also answered the question of how a buyer agent should look out for in a short sale situation, explaining that patience and short sale experience is the key.

Then Todd shared how he stumbled onto the short sale/foreclosure market through a chance opportunity to be an expert witness. He gave a Broker Price Opinion in a bankruptcy case. Todd asked who would get the listing, and the attorney explained that banks have lists of preferred agents, so Todd doubled down and spent 6 months finding every bank in the US and getting on their lists. Todd also cold called agents who sold REO, went to every conference and joined every group, so he was ready when the REO market exploded.

The growth was so quick that Todd scrambled to create the systems to handle this growth, eventually growing to over 600 listings and 120 agents working the leads and listings. Those systems also helped get more systematic and more experienced, so even as the REO market declined, Todd’s team can head off problems before they come up. “It was nice to have 60, 70 closings a month, but payroll was over $100k a month,” Todd explained. “I was very fortunate, I was in the right place at the right time, but I did the right things to put myself there.”

Next we dug into Todd’s background in video blogging. Todd was one of the first to use a Flip cam to record educational videos for his database. He shared where he gets his topic ideas, how he systematized the process, and the results of video blogging. Todd can directly attribute over 130 deals to leads coming from his video blog, which now has over 500 videos.

Then we dive into the app Todd has created in conjunction with Kristian Peter, another former REO mega-agent (and former guest of the show). HomingIn is a crowdsourced home valuation tool consumers use to request real home value estimates from real agents. Consumers request an estimate, which then pings all agents in the area, allowing them to submit a home value estimate with reasons, request pictures from the homeowner, and set themselves apart for other agents.

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HomingIn is in the early stages, so get in on the ground floor and try it out. It has great potetial to take off and become a go-to platform for sellers to find listing agents online. And when you spot an opportunity, double down and put everything you have to establish yourself in that niche.

Todd Miller is a top listing agent in Las Vegas specializing in Fannie Mae properties, and together Todd and his wife have sold over 3000 homes. Todd is a former #1 worldwide agent for KW, at one point carrying 600+ listings and working with 120 agents. Todd also runs a popular real estate video blog to which he directly attributes at least 130 transactions. Connect with Tood and check out his video blog at toddmillertv.com. Be sure to download the HomingIn app on the Apple App Store, or learn more about the app at homingin.co.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

We start with a question on the ethics and pros/cons of “coming soon’ listings. Both Greg and Preston agree that there’s nothing wrong morally or ethically in promoting the listing in advance. As long as you’re doing your fiduciary duty of attempting to get the seller the highest price and best terms in the shortest amount of time, there should be no issue with coming soon marketing.

Then we dive into the elements of a great headshot, including:

Timeliness

No obstruction of the eyes

Smile with teeth

Clothing

Preston tested his own headshot using an app called PhotoFeeler, where the public votes on profile photos and gives real feedback you can use to choose your best photos. Check out the app at https://www.photofeeler.com/.

Some of the more surprising results of Preston’s headshot testing were the fact that squinting your eyes helps convey likeability and confidence, and that full body shots were voted very low compared to head-and-shoulders shots. Preston also noted that if you use the PhotoFeeler app, it’s important to wait till you get at least 40 votes before drawing any conclusions.

Preston also shared the early results of interviews he’s conducted with executives and founders of 4 different virtual reality startups. Some of the possibilities include “virtual home tours” where you can view properties in full 3d, tour multiple properties and even make offers without ever setting foot in the home. At the very least it limits the amount of homes an agent has to show in person. However, it also affects the perception of the value of a Realtor, forcing us to explain how our value is in the negotiation and transaction management, not the opening of doors.

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With all the changes coming soon in virtual reality, live video and our entire existence being documented online, it’s important to put your best foot forward. Get comfortable with video, get high quality and effective headshots that convey the right qualities. This allows prospective clients to get comfortable with you in the online world so they’re more likely to contact you and work with you in the real world.

Preston Zeller is a real estate broker in Vancouver, WA in the greater Portland area. Preston comes from a family of real estate entrepreneurs, including builders, developers and investors. Prior to his real estate career, Preston started his own digital marketing consultancy, offering web design, branding and video production. Learn more about Preston at http://prestonzeller.com/ and send referrals to him via email at [email protected].

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

We start with a question on how to demonstrate value and maintain your commission with luxury listings. Greg explained how listing presentations need to be customized for luxury clients, how to research them in advance so you know what type of person you’re dealing with. Danny agreed and pointed out an app called Charlie that gives you intelligence on anyone coming up on your calendar to give you common interests and key points from their social media profiles.

Next Danny shared the story of how he transitioned from real estate attorney to licensed agent and how he built his team by continuously getting low value activities off his plate. “That’s the biggest misconception people have is they don’t realize you are a salesperson first, a real estate agent second. So I dove into sales hardcore. I bought every sales book imaginable,” Danny explained. “I know a lot of agents who have the contract memorized but are broke because they have no clients.”

Danny shared why he treats luxury clients the same as any other client, “I think the skills are the same. It’s all about asking great questions.” Danny also explained that some of the best high-dollar referrals have come from lower-end clients.

The systems Danny and his team have built allow them to provide very high levels of client service. “At the end of the day, a system is just a good checklist. So now we have all these 5-star Yelp reviews, and it’s all because our admin people follow the checklist that’s there, and we know that those things work.”

Then we dive into how Danny uses Vyral Marketing, and the Open-and-Click reports from their video emails to their database. Danny’s ISA team makes “customer service” calls to his database based on the response to their emails, looking for people in their database who are thinking of making a move.

We finish by covering Danny’s approach to team building, management and recruiting, and why it’s so important to hire self-managing, self-motivating people.

Resources:

Rocket Fuel -Gino Wickman - Influential book on Danny’s systems-based approach

Basecamp - For running your systems and checklists with your team

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Whether you’re looking to build a dominant real estate team or just want to attract one more client per month, the key is skills and systems. Focus on building your skills, both sales and management, and then create systems so things get done the right way every time.

Danny Batsalkin is the CEO and co-founder of TBG Homes, one of the most successful teams in the Keller Williams network.  Danny hosts The Real Estate Zone, a weekly radio show that airs at 7 am on Saturdays on Talk Radio 790 KABC.  Danny also trains and coaches real estate agents and is a Certified Trainer for the national bestselling book, The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. Learn more about Danny’s team at https://tbghomes.com/ and send referrals in Bevery Hills or Calabasas via email at [email protected] or call 310-432-5755 .

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

We started with a question on verbiage for listing appointment/consultation. Greg explained why he uses “listing appointment” with himself and his staff, and “listing consultation” with the seller. This helps him think of the appointment as immovable, but less threatening to the seller. Melinda shared why she uses “listing presentation” which sets up the expectations for a sales presentation. We also covered some ideas for marketing a home with a small plane hangar on the property.

Melinda explained some of the keys to her success in 2015, starting with script practice. “One of the things I really focused on this last year was increasing my presentation skills. Really working on my scripts, my objection handlers, knowing the inventory, getting out and previewing properties so I know what I’m presenting. It really makes a difference when you really sound like you know what you’re doing..” She shared her schedule for daily and weekly role play and listing presentation script practice.

“When I first started in this business, I was role playing 2 hours every day,” Melinda said. “I was also practicing all day long on the people I was talking to. They didn’t know I was practicing but I was. In the beginning my closing ratio was maybe 25%, now it’s 85%.”

We also dig into the mechanics of Melinda’s schedule, how she previews 5 homes in an hour, why she still works 10-12 hours a day during the week, and why she raised her minimum buyer standards. She also shared some great tips for door knocking and scheduling. “The key to getting more done is scheduling.” Melinda shared how she holds herself accountable to focus on work during work hours, “I just ask myself, would my client be happy if they knew what I was spending my time on right now?”

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Melinda’s business is a great example of a streamlined rainmaker model, with a support team that plays to her strengths and allows her to focus on new business. In a rainmaker model, increasing your skills, knowledge and client standards are the keys to making more profit. So learn from Melinda’s example, put in the work and you’ll see the results in your business just like Melinda.

Melinda Elmer is ranked among the top 1% of agents in today’s market and works out of Long Beach, CA.. Melinda has consistently been awarded the designation of top buyers agent and top listing agent and she has been recognized for her outstanding achievements by the Women’s Council of Realtors. She is a multi-year recipient of the prestigious Los Angeles Magazine’s Five Star rating. Send referrals in the Long Beach area to [email protected] or call 562-316-2915.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

We start with the basics of Instagram, including what types of content is most popular, why you should stick with very short videos even though IG raised it’s limit to 60 seconds, and how to find your Facebook friends on IG.

Sarah shared the top three ways Instagram has changed her business:

Sarah explained her strategy behind hashtags, which she breaks into two groups: Hashtags she uses often and funny hashtags. Sarah uses local hashtags to put her posts in front of people looking for real estate, finding the hashtags people are already using and then adding them to your posts.

Focusing on local events and commenting on them using hashtags is a great way to attract more followers. Tagging yourself in specific locations around your city also helps put your posts in front of new potential followers.

On Instagram, interaction is key. Sarah explained that anytime she posts on Instagram, typically once a day, she sets aside the next 15 minutes to interact with people she follows and people using the hashtags she follows. Basically she’s starting conversations with people, who will then check out her profile. Sarah is also careful not to fake-like all people’s recent posts when she starts following them, she prefers a more authentic approach of liking just a few posts.

Then Sarah shared her strategy for mixing personal and business content, why you shouldn’t pay for likes on Instagram, and how to link your IG acct to your Facebook Business page, and why she only boosts non-business posts on Facebook.

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Gary Vaynerchuk says, “One piece of content can change your life” and Sarah is a great example. One short video clip caused her IG account to take off, getting tons of comments and shares from agents around North America. So start sharing pictures and short video clips, interact with people based on local hashtags, and be yourself. You never know when one of your posts will go viral and attract hundreds or thousands of new followers!

Guest Bio- Sarah Johnston is a 10-year veteran Realtor with Maxwell Canyon Creek in Calgary, Alberta. Sarah is a Certified Negotiation Expert, Condominium Specialist, Country Residential and Buyers Representative. To send referrals to Sarah in Calgary, email her at [email protected] or DM her on Instagram, adventuresinrealestateyyc.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

What are the pillars of your business? In our latest interview episode, Justin Woodall shares how he nearly left the business during the recession, why he decided to double down on lead generation, and how he’s built a thriving team on prospecting and referrals.

Takeaways + Tactics

Be client-minded, not commission-minded

Systems are the key to growing your business - every deal is different but your activities are usually the same

Education and follow up the key to converting Expireds - Help them understand the market and their options and then follow up consistently

You have to know that when you do the right thing, when you put the clients first and serve them, that everything will work out just fine. - Justin Woodall

We start with a question from a newer agent on whether they should join a team or stay independent. Justin and Greg agreed that joining a team has advantages but you’re giving up commission, and it’s crucial to understand your niche and what you’re good at.

Next, Justin shared the importance of systems and how they allow him to do 150 deals without sacrificing client service. He explained how he tracks information for listing presentations and has his asst put together a file with all the information he needs for that appointment. Justin also shared his backstory and the structure of his team, including why he hired a second assistant rather than hiring a buyer’s agent as he started to get busier.

Justin explained why he’s hired an ISA to help follow up with leads, the qualities of a successful ISA and how he compensates her. That led Justin to share of his biggest challenges in building a team, “I think hiring the right people is a skill that’s kind of hard to develop. And if you haven’t done it, you don’t have a clue... I’m become a lot more selective on who I bring on my team.”

Then we dive into how Justin holds agents accountable, rewards success, and the metrics they track. Rather than holding a weekly meeting, Justin meets with his team for a 15 minute Daily Huddle and then a larger meeting once a month, which keeps them on track without taking up too much time.

Justin also answered the question, What would you do if you were starting out in the business today? “Get really clear on where you want to be. Do you want to grow your own team, be on a team, what kind of quality of life do you want to have?” We finished by covering how Justin goes after Expired listings and why they are still a pillar of his business.

Justin’s story is a great example of perseverance, investing in yourself through coaching and education, and succeeding through experiments. You’re going to make some mistakes, hire the wrong people, send out the wrong marketing pieces. Focus on giving the best service possible, stay in touch with your database and adjust to the market and you’ll be successful over the long run.

Guest Bio

Justin Woodall is the owner of the Justin Woodall Group with Keller Williams in Athens, GA. Justin’s team consistently ranked in the top 10 teams for the entire Keller Williams Southeast Region for several months in 2015 and continues to grow, selling over 150 homes last year. To send referrals to Justin in the Athens area, email [email protected] and learn more about his team at thejustinwoodallgroup.com.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

Power prospector and listing pro Susan Heller joins us to share her weekly structure for prospecting, how her Closing Negotiator helps her give great service, and why phone prospecting is her default setting.

Takeaways + Tactics

Start your week off strong with a Money Monday full of highly focused prospecting

Make follow-up calls from 9-11am on Saturday morning - people will be impressed with your diligence and you have less competition

Spend 30min role playing in the morning with a partner to sharpen your scripts

We started with a simple objection handler for Open Houses, “Why don’t you just give me your business card and I’ll get in contact with you.” Susan and Greg agreed that questions are key to both engaging them in conversation and qualifying them to see if you can help them. This also builds comfort and makes it more likely that they’ll actually reach out to you rather than “lose” your card.

Then we cover Susan’s background, including her stint as a telephone interviewer that removed much of her fear of hearing NO, and how that experience prepared her to be a great prospector.

Susan shared how she brought on an experienced agent, who brought her own database, to join her team as a “Closing Negotiator.” This team member actually negotiates many of Susan’s contracts in addition to transaction coordination. This very unique combination gives Susan a lot of freedom to bring in new business and still provide a very high level of client service. Susan explained “As we know, with today’s technology, we can be anywhere and still be listing and selling property.”

Then we dive into how Susan generates her leads, including networking with other agents for nationwide referrals and online leads, and her prospecting structure. Susan outlined her Money Monday, “I prospect Monday from 8am to 8pm. I start every morning with Expired’s, then some follow-up and I’ve been doing some probate. I’ll take maybe a 2 hour break in the middle of the day. Then I go back on the phone, typically from 4-8pm and then the massage therapist arrives at the house around 8:15pm.”

Susan also invests 8am-noon every other day prospecting, 2 hours every Sat morning for extra follow up, and if she doesn’t have appointments in the afternoon, she hops back on the phones.

Want to inject a shot of adrenaline into your real estate business? Hit the phones and hustle for appointments. It’s the fastest, most direct path to more business.

Guest Bio

Susan Heller is an award-winning 20-year veteran broker and real estate team leader based in Naples, FL. As a longtime coaching client of Mike Ferry, Susan is a top listing agent and strong prospector. Her team structure and attention to detail allow Susan to provide excellent client service without losing focus on bringing in new business. To send Susan referrals in Naples, call 239-248-8000 or email [email protected].

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

How do you systematically grow a business without falling victim to Shiny Object Syndrome? Mega agent and business consultant Lars Hedenborg joins us to share his story and his approach to scaling up, focusing on your highest value activities, and installing the systems that build momentum in your business.

Takeaways + Tactics

1. Schedule your two 90-minute prospecting blocks every day and ruthlessly guard them

2. If you want to exit the buy side of your business, set a date and turn the leads over. More than anything, it’s a decision to be OK with someone else performing at 80% of your ability.

3. Build systems and checklists for everything - systems are the key to scaling and exiting your business

It takes a lot of effort to get the momentum going. Once we got it going, it didn’t take much for me to go from 120 to 500 sides this year. -Lars Hedenborg

We started by asking Lars about his Referral Cards, which he distributes around his office, and how his team asks for referrals 4 times during the process.  This has helped his team generate 35% of their business through referrals. We also covered Lars background in M&A’s evaluating businesses and how that set him up for success in real estate by giving him a good business foundation and understanding of business systems.

Then we go into the buyer side of real estate, and Lars explained that one of the key skills he built in his 1st year was mastering buyer side scripts. Timeblocking, discipline and holding yourself accountable were key to building his buyer side business. “I didn’t like prospecting, it was the worst thing in the world. But I knew nobody was going to call me,” Lars explained.

In terms of scaling your buyer business, Lars explained that the best buyer leads are yard sign calls, so exclusively working with buyers isn’t a sustainable business model. If you do choose to remain a buyers agent, you can focus on internet leads, Open Houses or even join a team that allows you to focus on buyers while passing off listing leads to a listing agent. Lars also shared that even on the buyer side, you need two focused 90-minute prospecting sessions in the morning in order to generate the leads you need.

If you’re looking to become a top listing agent, Lars explained, “I don’t think there’s a more highly leveraged activity than marketing; designing an Expired piece or a FSBO piece or putting a FSBO system into your CRM. That’s how I build my listing inventory initially. I never was much of a smile-and-dial to Expireds guy. I was always good at creating direct response pieces that got people to call me.” He also shared that weekly communication with your sellers is so critical, and how he dropped the ball in that area early in his career.

Then we covered the challenge of focusing on listings and giving your buyer leads to other agents or hiring your first buyer agents. Lars explained that if you want any freedom in your life, it’s very difficult to keep working with buyers, and you must set a date to delegate this part of your business and establish good systems for your buyer agents. The key is that Lars personally worked his Boomtown buyer leads for a full year before he brought on a buyer agent, so he had systems in place that he could teach his buyer agent (who is still with his team).

On scaling up and out of the listing side, Lars shared his process to building your systems and processes for taking listings, and finding the right person to replace you. “Not having the systems in place is where it tends to fail,” Lars said. He also shared how he would enter the business today with 1) internet buyer leads and 2) Database. Those two things could take you to 50-75 deals. Just by working yard sign calls and adding some direct response marketing could take you to over 100 deals per year. Then it becomes much more about systems, vision and leadership.

Finally, we talked about how Lars gets clarity, how he chooses which systems to install next in his business, and how he goes about installing those systems. Lars recommended a book called Traction, that really helped give him an overview of the 4 pillars of a business: marketing, sales, operations and finance. To that Lars has added vision and leadership to come up with 6 total drivers he teaches agents to implement in their business. “People drive the systems and your business is a reflection of you, but it really is a systems-based approach to business...It’s a little checklist for everything.”

So whether you’re looking to scale and exit your real estate business, or you’re just starting out in the business, taking a systems-based approach will give you a huge advantage. There’s a pattern you can follow, one that many other agents have proven to work, and they key is to put in the effort to build the momentum. Great systems are the key to scaling your business and getting big or even exiting daily production.

Guest Bio

Lars Hedenborg is a top agent in Charlotte, NC whose team sells over 400 homes a year while Lars works in the business one day per week. Lars is also the founder of Real Estate B-School, where he teach top producing agents and team leaders the exact same mindsets, systems, tools and strategies behind his success. Learn more about Lars and the B-School at rebsstrategysession.com.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

Takeaways + Tactics

1. Be very careful about partnering with another agent in your business - in most cases you’re better off paying referral fees or hiring staff

2. Leverage your time with Showing Assistants and pay them a flat fee per houses shown

3. Submit an “Our Story” writeup for your buyers with every offer - pull on the heartstrings by including pictures (with your client’s permission)

In our latest episode, our scheduled guest was unable to join us so we answered a range of sales and marketing questions from real estate Facebook Groups.

We covered:

*Objection handlers for seller prospects who want to go with an agent who has listings in the neighborhood

*Why you may bring on a partner in your real estate business

*How to follow up with a seller after not getting the listing signed at the list consultation

*Having buyers write an “Our Story” letter to submit with their offer

*How to use and pay Showing Assistants

*Services you can use to collect and publish reviews and testimonials

If you’d like YOUR question answered on the show, post it on the Real Estate Uncensored Facebook Fan Page. You’ll get your question answered on one of our shows the same week!

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.

Notaries often have incredibly valuable and timely market information, but agents don’t tap into that source of intelligence. In our latest episode, Bay area notary and agent Brian Gillman shares how notaries pick up patterns and see market developments before they become statistics. He also explains how to build relationships with notaries and other related professionals so you have an intelligence network feeding you up-to-the-minute market information, and how to use that information to attract new clients.

Takeaways + Tactics

Build relationships with the best notaries in your market - Your title/escrow reps will know exactly who they are

Observe where buyers are coming from and moving to, and how demographics affect these changes

Use this on-the-ground intelligence to run targeted ad campaigns to reach potential clients with a very targeted, local-specific message

I see numbers before they become statistics. So when the county aggregates and releases numbers for January, that’s old news to me, because I saw it last week or if not today. -Brian Gillman

We started by answering an objection from a homeowner you might encounter while circle prospecting. Greg explained how to handle both on the phone and on the doors, including how to bring up something personal about their home or their vehicle that you genuinely like to shift the conversation away from real estate and build rapport.

Next we dove into Brian’s role as a notary, which goes far beyond getting loan documents signed and into being a translator that helps both buyers and sellers at the closing table. Then we get into how Brian conducts 4-5 “exit interviews” with buyers and sellers to get a feel for where the market is going, and how he tried to share that information with agents (unsuccessfully). Brian gave some great examples in the Bay area of how specific types of people are moving, why they move in and out of specific areas, demographics and work situations that are driving those changes.

Brian shared how to use small bits of market information to build infographics for social media that will attract the attention of specific types of clients. Brian explained how he would go about building relationships with someone in his position and how you can send them business.

Clients come and go. Strategic partners can send you both clients and valuable market information for decades to come. So reach out to your title and escrow people, your notaries, your loan officers and other related professionals. Build real relationships and look for ways to help grow their business, and you’ll lay a solid foundation for your real estate business.

Guest Bio

Brian Gillman is an experienced notary and licensed agent with Intero Log Gatos. Brian serves the entire 680 corridor in the Bay area, from Danville to Los Gatos. Contact him at [email protected] or call/text 925-895-5300.

Click here to download your free PDF, Greg’s Favorite Scripts, featuring scripts for buyer and seller lead follow up, price reduction and objection handler scripts and much more.