Super Agents Live- Selling Real Estate

Today on the show I brought on a guy with a team of 3 did 100M in production last year.

Obviously, the only way to do that level of production is when your selling luxury. Selling luxury is not only ridiculously lucrative it's sexy---for a lot of people this is why they get into real estate. That's why so many shows like selling sunset are so popular. The biggest barrier to entry is the lack of access to the actual people that can buy a 10+ million-dollar house.

Today's guest shares a lot of nuggets when it comes to building a luxury brand, meeting the right kind of people, and the type of skillset needed to pull down 8 figure deals. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did when I recorded it.

Whether you want to move into luxury or just want to sell more houses you need to look at myradioexpert.com

Let me share with you a few things. One--in almost every metro market in the US radio has a much bigger reach than something like Facebook. Two-- this pandemic has radically shifted consumer listening habits--whether its been the election or the pandemic people are streaming local stations more than ever. The leader hands down in helping agents grow their business on radio is myradioexpert.com. These guys create a custom advertising campaign for each client--there's nobody that does it better. Go to myradioexpert.com fill out the getting started sheet or give me a call at 619310823

Hey everybody--I hope you are doing well wherever you ---- last week I shared a little of what my end of year planning outline looks like. If you havent heard that episode----that is something that you might want to consider. Today---I was thinking of covering some of the areas that you should consider adding to your plan right now. One thing I wanted to cover is something I am watching closely is the eviction moratoriums---right now the eviction moratorium is scheduled to sunset on december 31, 2020 according to the wall street journal in January there are between 2.4 and 5 million households at risk and more in the following months. While this is a very sad and I wish that no one ever has to be forcefully removed from their home----the fact is there are going to be a lot of rentals hit the market I think this poses an extraordinary opportunity for a lot of people.

In my preparation for how to best position oneself to capture this opportunity I thought it would be most helpful to the audience to talk with you about cutting costs as we move into an uncertain economy and how to best place yourself to capitalize on opportunity as they appear.

When looking at your business planning for the year you really should start off with reviewing your brokerage. If you are thinking about making a change or just entering the industry. I want to share with you some things you may want to keep in mind.

First--let me say that if you are considering making a change---right now is the time to do it. Heres why:

1) You probably have less of a pending transaction "pipeline".

Most buyers and sellers wait until after the holidays. If you make a change, there's less chance any unethical corporate document skimmer will try to screw you out of commissions.

But, hey your broker is most certainly ethical, that's why you chose them to begin with right? Yeah--most brokers are very ethical but, there are plenty of corporate clowns that will hold money back in the hope that you wont pursue them in small claims court

Too often sales people that are headed out the door are nickeled and dimed others lose client relationships and that adds up to tens of thousands of dollars over and agents career.

1. If you do have clients under contract---many of those expire during the holidays and if your client happens to cancel while your in the middle of a broker change well uh--everybody wins --I think. It will at least make your job change easier.

Choosing a broker is much more than just looking at the office or the splits. You really should be asking yourself what broker is going to spend the most effort in helping you grow your business. The fact is most brokers are just big recruiters they are not incented to help you grow. Most brokers will hire you sight unseen even though, they will tell you that they only accept 1 out of 10 agents. They hire almost anybody because they are not going to give you anything otherwise known as leads.

I want to credit inman writer missy yost that came up with some of the questions and content I am going to share.

When looking at brokerage you need to decide whether to join a team or build your business on your own. There are many pros and cons of joining a team and in my mind a lot of people join teams mainly because they are either nervous about their ability to generate leads and they are nervous about setting out on a desolate landscape on their own. In short--they are nervous about becoming an entrepreneur.

Before you jump ship on your current broker or blindly join a team here are some questions you should consider.

1. Does your brokerage offer agent support, and if so, to what extent?

The amount of support an agent receives will be one of the most significant differences in brokerages and brands.

Some are geared more toward the self-sufficient agent, while others will do everything for you.

If you want an admin person to enter listings into the MLS, prepare e-blasts, postcards, and other marketing materials, choose a brokerage that provides that type of support. However, you should know that very very few brokers are any good at marketing so if a broker tells you they will send out email blasts, postcards or anything else for you ---ask them to see the last thing they sent out and then ask them to see the response rates. That will give you some kind of idea of what they are really doing.

If you are like me and are OK doing this yourself, this type of support will not matter.

In general, the more support a brokerage offers, the higher the fees might be for you.

The second question to ask is: What do you do to retain your agents?

When a brokerage focuses more on recruiting than retention, it's a red flag.

Good brokerages will spend as much time on the retention of good agents as they do on recruiting. The broker should have a clear answer regarding incentive programs geared toward agent retention.

1. Do you encourage your agents to come into the office to work?

Working from home or at the office is vital to many agents.

If you work better around others than you do in a home office alone, then desk space and a busy office are essential for your success.

Some offices are quiet, while others are full of energy. Pay attention to the vibe, and choose a brokerage that fits your work style best.

Question # 4. What are you doing to incorporate new technology into your real estate brokerage?

Old school brokerages that rely mostly on old school methods such as door-knocking and calling FSBOs and expired listings are fading, while brokerages that encourage video, social media and iBuying tools are becoming more relevant.

Make sure the brokerage you choose embraces new technology. In this environment its critical that your broker has all the tools for you to run your book of business virtually, that they understand social media and how to use things like facebook ads or google PPC.

It's OK if it teaches a mix of old- and new-school methods to agents. It's not OK if it's ignoring new methods of prospecting.

1. Does your brokerage encourage teams?

The trend in real estate has been moving more toward teams and less toward the individual agent.

However, brokerages embrace teams differently. Some look at them as a group of agents that share commission and responsibilities based on their separate agreements with the brokerage.

Others allow the team leader to set commission and all other requirements for their team members. In this case, the brokerage pays the team (usually a business entity), and the team pays the team members.

As a new agent, being part of a team gives a sense of belonging, and though commission might be less, you make up for it in volume.

If you are thinking about being part of a team, interview multiple teams before deciding which one to join.

1. What fees do you charge your agents, and which ones are optional?

Some brokerages have high monthly fees, and others have no fees at all.

Ask about mandatory fees, what they cover, and what fees and offerings are optional.

If you don't need a desk, you don't want to pay for one. You'll want a brokerage that, at minimum, offers a website, lead capture, and customer relationship management (CRM).

1. What are your commission tiers, and do you have a cap?

Too many agents get wrapped up in their commission split. If you're not selling, your split doesn't matter, so choose a brokerage that fits your needs first, and then consider commissions.

Companies that have a cap will give you a 100% commission once you meet your annual cap. Other companies will increase the commission as you meet specific sales levels.

Your commission will not reset at these companies every year, but it might decrease if your annual volume falls below your previous year's volume.

1. Do you have franchise fees?

If you choose a brokerage with franchise fees, you will always give a portion of your gross commission toward these fees. The more you make, the more you'll give.

Franchise fees are usually up to 8% of your gross commission. and that can add up over time.

One thing is very clear pandemic or no the business of selling real estate is changing and they are a lot of very deep pocketed companies that want to disintermediate the agent---there is simply too much money. Tom Ferry once told me that real estate and all its accompanying parts accounts for 20% of the nations GDP. The takeaway from this is that we must stay ahead of tech focused companies that want to automate most of the home selling and buying process.

You can look at some of the moves zillow has recently made. You can look at the rise of ibuyers and the tremendous amount of money that has been raised. You can look at new companies like OJO that just closed a 134Million dollar D round---these guys are buying up small portals like digs and movoto and are rapidly developing AI to ask, answer and deliver an end to end solution through technology.

If you want to thrive in this environment you must develop a fully defensible unique value proposition or you will be soon obsolete.

Right now more than ever we need to make sure that your broker is not doing the same things in the same ways as every other brokerage---it is truly innovate or die on the vine. I dont know about you but, I dont want to look like that old travel agent that still sits at his desk with picture of hawaii up on the wall hoping that someone will walk in and ask how much a plane ticket is.

I want to be ahead of the game and I hope that you do as well. I will leave you with this--if you have questions about what broker is best suited to you or you want some help in crafting next years strategy I am here to help. Send me a text--my direct line is 6193010823 or you can send an email to [email protected] Until then---I hope you are safe and I hope you can still dream big dreams. I cant wait to hear what you want to achieve.

See you

Whenever December rolls around I am always obsessing with future casting of what I want to accomplish for next year and this year is no different---typically I will look back at my last 12 months and take note of what worked well for me and what things didn't go so well and then course correct. Hopefully, I can see what I need to double down on and what I need to let go.

Sometimes I double down on losses----If I had bad year trading stocks I will double up my positions and dig in to not only reverse my losses but, turn them into blockbuster returns---I always end up losing more because I start making bad bets.

Sometimes I find something that has worked well and think that I am so good at that nowadays that I don't have to focus on it any more-----I always end up replacing a good habit with a bad habit,

I can do an hour on goal setting but, I'm not-however I do want to take a few minutes and talk with you about the framework that I have found to be most effective to not only set goals but, to actually achieve them. The first 2 things that I consider is what pillars in my life do I really want to change? For me---in some years financial is my primary goal and to be honest, that has been my primary driver for most of my life but, in those years that I only focused on my financial pillar-----I started to see an eroding in other areas of my life----for me invariably---as my financial pillar grew my health pillar started to lose height. I spent more time engaged in work I don't have time to work out or eat right. There is always a push-pull in life---because we all have the same amount of time we all experience a pushing forward and simultaneous pulling back. I am not going to cover how to hack the system and how leverage can change all this----I just want to provide you my framework to design my life.

I focus on 5 pillars---they are in no particular order:

Financial

Health

Relationships

Education'Growth

Spiritual

Those are the 5 areas that I focus on and I think most people will agree that reasonable buckets to focus on-----the problem engineering your life is not just knowing that these are the 5 buckets that you should focus on but, more of a question of how to focus on them. It doesn't work if you just start listing your dreams. I want to make a million dollars or worse I want to achieve financial freedom. My health goal is to be at 10% bodyfat or whatever your ideal is.

Bullet pointing your life's ideals is great but, don't confuse that with actual year-end planning.

I keep it super simple----I look at each pillar in turn and rank them from 1 disaster to 10 which is off the charts.

If for example, my financial pillar is at a 7 and my health is at a 2 I probably need to really consider rebalancing how I spend my time. If my relationships with my friends and family is a 3 my education/growth is an 8---- you probably need to think about going to some relationship seminars. I'm bringing this up because I went through most of my life thinking that my financial pillar will solve all the others----if my finances we a 9 and my health a 2--no problem---I hire the best people and buy the best training and voila---im fixed. That tactic works for a time but, thats not something that a person can sustain for more than a few years. Mainly because the peaks get higher and the troughs get lower. Its a much better strategy to focus on solid 7's and no----you can't average them. You must look at them pillar by pillar.

The last thing I am going to say about this is that when you look at these pillars you should only focus on a maximum of adding 3 things to each pillar and subtracting 3 things from each pillar.

The methodology around limiting the number of changes you make in each pillar is that it provides a backstop around someone trying to change everything all at once. The process of improvement is largely incremental----there are times in life where we can achieve move the ball way down the field----but, those outlier events can rarely be engineered year over year---

You should build your business much like a stock or startup portfolio---you want to spend the bulk of your time just trying to get base hits------although; we all need to have a few moonshots in play.

Im not going to get into the specifics of what that looks like during this episode although I will leave you with this-----planning for this year is going to be very different in years past for the reason that we have some very large structural things right in front of us---covid, an administration change, mistrust in our institutions and a very uncertain economy. These are times where fortunes are made and lost--the people and teams that win are the ones that stayed flexible enough to adapt to fast-moving change but, built-in enough structure to keep getting on base.

If you need some help crafting your next year's strategy or just want someone to add finishing touches-----give me a call I would love to see if I can help. My direct line is 6193010823

More listings, more money, better life

We are closing in on a new year and hopefully all of you are planning out your goals for next year. I dont usually get into end of year planning but, this is such a weird year that I felt like I should address this topic.

One of the reasons I felt like this was important is that unlike in other years is that everything has been changing so fast. I know thats how it feels---everything is so different than it was last november. When I say things are so different now Im not necessarily talking about politically or even economically even though areas are massively different than a year ago. Im talking about the differences in how we live--how we work --fundamentally how we spend our time and attention. And all this matters to a very large degree as we think about how we will attempt to reach more people and convert those people into listing their houses with you.

Let me ask the question - what are you going to do this year that will propel you forward? When i meet with teams and we decide on a 12 month business plan I usually take time and make sure that we are addressing the appropriate areas--some of this is getting the culture right--meaning that the culture is in alignment with where the team is headed. Many times in newer or smaller teams there simply is no unifying culture. Once we address the soft portions of a team or business I like to get into the nuts and bolts. I want to know how they retain existing clients and making them brand ambassadors when they are at work or at play. How do they get new clients? Where will they get new clients?

Im gonna do a quick and dirty rundown of some of the things i am telling my clients to be mindful

The first area I always encourage clients to look at is their sphere of influence and your database. Everyone thinks they are in touch with their sphere until they find out their good friend just listed with someone else. SOI and database at first seem like one pillar but, i find it helpful to separate the two. On your sphere in this time of constrained supply sellers have a ton of choices so you need to be extra vigilant that everyone in your sphere knows what you do and why your the best at it. The same thing for your database but, the connection you have with your soi and your database is often different---the connection you have with your database is more tenuous than your sphere but, the goal is the same. For everyone in your database you need to stay very much in front of them right now. They need to know that your a realtor and that you can help them. The question is can you really help them? What is your unique value proposition? Why will your soi and database put you at the top of all the other agents they know?

When is the last time you spoke or texted to everyone in your phone? Whens the last time you sent out handwritten notes? Im not going to cover all the stuff you can do to get closer to your soi or database i just want to remind you that the lifeblood of your business are the people you know.

And If you dont know that many people you need to go out and meet them---more than that you need to go out and help someone and then help someone else---sooner or later you will have a whole bunch of people that will be singing your praises. Whats that zig ziglar line? Help enough people get what they want and you will get what you want. I think thats true.

What if your in the right now game? I need a deal right now because---I need to pay my rent or I need to feed my kids or whatever--I totally understand. If you need a listing right now lets talk about what you can do right now. The first thing is this---do you really need a listing right now because if thats true I would ask you how did door knocking go yesterday? Maybe you think you need a deal right now but, that door knocking thing---well thats not my thing and hey arent we battling covid? For the person that says they need a deal but, are not willing to go out and do whatever it takes to go out and get it--------I would suggest that sort of person either doesnt actually need a new listing and that they should probably find another way to make a living. This is not a hard business but, it can be hard on our egos----we want people to come to us---we want to put our 800 dollar boots up on the desk and have people come so that we can dispense all our knowledge. Thats a great idea and maybe you will get there one day but, for the 99% of the rest of us we need to put in the hard work.

For those of us that want to look at our other options lets spend a few minutes chatting about this. Assuming we have gone thru our database and our sphere we can start to look outside the places closest to us. I was going to drop into some of the online and offline strategies for gaining new clients but, Im going to take a step back into talking about your sphere of influence. Let me share why I think this is really important right now.

As i said earlier this country is as divided as its ever been and we are all on the lookout for fake or biased news. I can look at cnn and all i see is that covid is killing the whole world and then I pop over into foxnews and Im seeing riots and unrest and I dont fully believe either narrative. I think thats true for everyone and when we are not sure we can trust what we are seeing online, on television or on the radio we turn to the people we trust most. Those people around us---if I trust suzy and suzy trusts toby----i trust toby.

This is why your sphere is so important and in this timeframe it is more important than ever. OK--I hope you will indulge me a bit here if you think you know the story.

When I coach newer agents----they tell me they dont have a sphere or that its very small--that might be true in some cases but, the fact of the matter is that a lot of people have a giant aversion to "selling" their friends. Man--if you think that----you are not gonna last. We can provide value to our sphere-----those other coaches that tell you to use magic scripts to talk with your friends are wrong----I would say your intuition is correct when you think that you are going to burn relationships trying to use scripts on your sphere. Your friends know what you talk like and when you start sounding inauthentic---your dead. You shouldnt use scripts or rely on crazy things like "33" times to start scoring referrals from your sphere. Whatever you do---be super authentic with what you say and how you say it. Your friends will know. I mention being authentic because our next step is to write down a ton of names. So--if your taking notes---grab a pad and pen. I suggest you open up a spreadsheet--it will help us move names around later.

Right now this is just a brain dump----as you write names down dont start making judgements about who should or should not be on the list----everyone should be on the list.

• Past coworkers (even if your last job was waiting tables)
• Your friends (yes, even the high school pals you haven't seen in 20 years)
• Your spouse's or partner's coworkers
• Your spouse's or partner's friends
• Your kids' friends or their parents (depending on age)
• Your kids' teachers and school workers
• Your extended family
• Your neighbors
• Friends and acquaintances from any social groups such as Neighborhood Association, Rotary, PTA, etc.
• Anyone you interact with regularly (even if that just means once every couple of months), for example: your hair stylist, accountant, doctor, dentist, even your bank teller.

Don't get sidetracked thinking about what you're going to say when you reach out, or why you really don't know this person that well, etc.

The first step is to just get the names down on paper—and at this point, it's absolutely crucial you don't undervalue or overthink a single candidate for your list.

Now that we have all the names we can color coordinate to heat zones or levels of influence or levels of connection. Think of this like a dart board---the center or bullseye is our hot zone. The people in our hot zone is our immediate family, our close friends and daily/weekly contacts. The next circle is our warm ring this would include nearby family, social friends, church members, business associates. Then you have your outer ring--distant family, neighbors and casual acquaintances. Outside of your outer ring is everyone in the world you havent met---people you dont know---this is guy in the car next to you at a stop light. These are cold contacts. These are the people that you target when you buy facebook ads, radio ads or grab a billboard.

Once you have all the names written down and segmented all your connections into hot, warm, and outer rings. You need to reach out to them in a way that is authentic to you as well as the level of connection. For a lot of your list it would be really strange to call up and announce the topic of the call is business. For a lot of people just getting a call from you might be out of character---if you chat with them on facebook---reach out to them on facebook. Talk with them on the platform and way you normally talk with them and try to engage them in different methods---if you normally chat with them on whatsapp ask them for their email so you can send them an article. Slowly try and close the gap between you and them---talking with someone in person is always better than texting them

Reaching out with a question like "is this the year your going to buy a house"? Or something like that is terrible; instead reach out and share with them a recent win, a funny story or a new aha about the market. Can you do this for everyone on your list? Remember, this is not a sales call----your sharing something personal which might just happen to coincide with your career as a realtor.

Let me insert here a pro marketing tip: once everyone in your sphere clearly knows that you sell real estate we now need to cement this idea or craft a brand around this notion. Your sphere trusts you as a person now we need to get them to trust you as an expert. This is where we can leverage social media to show our wins. This is where we become an active member in the community--pta or neighborhood whatever. This is where you need to start to buying traditional and digital media. This is a tool like radio goes crazy---once your sphere hears you on radio being endorsed by some bigwig the game changes. Now your no longer the guy i used to wait tables with but, now your the real estate expert. Your ideas and opinions carry weight. I have to jump in here---if your looking to up your game whether thats buying radio or just buying facebook ads send me a text. This is where my 10,000 hours lay. I would love to see if it can help my cell is 619-301-0823

OK---this is where i start to diverge and go into marketing or I get more granular on specifically how to not only make all these calls and send all these emails but, how to keep track of them ie having a crm.

Hey---wait a second---let me ask you guys---do you have a crm? If not--why? And if you say that you have "access" to your broker or team leads crm I would strongly encourage you to have your own crm no matter what. If you follow some of the suggestions already laid out you will be on track to creating your own referral machine. And thats exactly what Im talking about---the great brian buffini built a whole empire using the exact outline above. I dont know about you but, if I am going to set out to build a referral machine I would want to own the machine--which is your database.

If you dont have your own crm because of the cost consider joining a broker like exp that gives you a ton of these tools---they give you a professional website that is completely your own and your own crm---it comes when you join. If your not familiar with the pros and cons of using your brokers tools Im happy to have a quick 1 on 1 chat with you about what someone like exp offers. You can still text me at 6193010823 and just let me know what you want to talk about.

OK--maybe next week we can get further into year end planning or if you guys have a topic send me an email to [email protected] and if you like the show please go to itunes or wherever you get your podcasts and give us an honest rating anbd review it helps other people find the show.

mastering marketing and the power of radio advertising in real estate and doubling your income with your sphere of influence (SOI)

If you want to sell 5M dollar houses--you need to know the kind of person that can afford a 5 or 10M dollar house. If your rolodex doesnt have at least a few 10Million dollar people your gonna have a difficult time listing big dollar properties.

Todays guest shares what he knows about centimillionaires; people that are worth at least 100 million dollars.

If you want to double your income next year this is the episode you need to listen at least a few times.

Hey everybody--I hope that everything is going well for you right now---ok--todays guest is a guy that started out as a regular old real estate agent and leveraged the skills he learned as an agent and ended up being tapped to lead keller williams as ceo--my guest is none other than chris heller

I wanted to know how he engineers opportunity in his career and life and we get into a very honest conversation about the traits of success as well as, what he see for real estate in the future --in this conversation we get into how AI will impact the way we search for homes in the near future. Theres no question that real estate is one of the only bright lights during these very difficult times and if you want to grow your business into something that is predictable and repeatable you need to be advertising on the radio--not on google or facebook---good oldfashioned radio--it worked for chris heller and it will work for you. The leader in radio for real estate agents is myradioexpert. They will find the right station---negotiate a schedule and rates --and they will get you rates you simply cannot do yourself------they even write copy-----if you want to level up---sendme an email to [email protected] or go to myradioexpert.com and fill out he getting started sheet.

Today's guest is a tech entrepreneur that is trying to grow a discount brokerage marketplace---T---the reason I brought him on and grilled him about what he's doing to grow his brand is that I wanted to show regular agents that don't have a clear methodology about how to grow sales or how to market the stark differences between what they are doing and what someone with a very clear vision is doing.

More importantly than the tactics being deployed is the clear reasoning and thought process that goes into building a company. During this interview, I asked this guest all sorts of questions about all sorts of topics and he always had a clear and concise answer at least to how he attempts to approach a subject--

One thing that became very clear to me during this interview is that one of the reasons his company is succeeding is because most agents are failing. They are failing to market themselves and their unique skills to the market. In reality this is why zillow can charge so much money for the leads they produce-----------its not that zillow leads are even that good; its that agents will opt to pay someone else instead of learning to market their businesses.

Before we get to the episode----if you need some marketing help or help in planning out the coming year or just want to get unstuck----give me a call I have helped hundreds of agents double their businesses and create the life they want. If your serious about building your business you should consider joining my inner circle. Ive designed my inner circle coaching program to help you get unstuck and get you to the next level. My direct line is 619-301-0823 that 6193010823 now----lets get to this fantastic episode.

In this fast moving environment none of us really know who is ready to sell or buy a house--I cant tell you how many times agents will email me with a story about how one of their close friends used another agent or how the person you see everyday at the gym used someone else.

If youve been around long enough this has happened to you--the reason I think its important is that too often people assume that 1) other people know what you do and trust you to do the job and 2) everyone is one interaction away from signing a contract. I often hear people say "that neighborhood is dominated by X" or I cant break into that group because everyone in that group knows susan and will use her. I say that is a false notion -- a limiting belief that is holding you back.

I hope that today you will learn why you might want to start incorporating youtube ads in your quiver. We talk about how to buy ads, when you actually get charged for an ad and how to target your ideal type of person or demographic.

I just realized that many of you might not understand how an online ad running in the background fits into your sales funnel. You might not even have one or a real one.

Just the basics---your sales funnel looks just like a funnel---you have a big opening at the top where all kinds of stuff comes in and you finally have a smaller opening at the bottom where sales or dollars actually falls out. At the top of your funnel you should have a mix of inputs---some of them totally offline like calling your database--that is an offline lead generation input. You might have radio, television, postcards or some other mailer--that is another type of offline lead generation inputs. Most of the offline inputs i described above are primarily used to locate sellers --generally. Your sales funnel should also have top line inputs that are online and can run in the background and can be easily and quickly changed, altered or stopped. This is where facebook ads, youtube ads or google PPC come into play. These are cheap inputs that yield large amounts of low quality leads. For those of you who will take exception to me saying online leads are low quality-----I am calling them low quality because they generally have a low level of intent--they often are more curious that ready to pull the trigger but, this type of always running in the background strategy can be extremely effective when we target the prospects in your database. The people who have met you but, dont know you well or those people that might know you relatively well but, arent familiar with your level of expertise. This might be someone you know from your childs school or that guy or girl you know at the gym. Facebook ads, youtube ads and generally online methods can be very effective at converting prospects that have lower levels of connection with you. So----hopefully you have an understanding of what your funnel might look like-----lets get to the episode

persuasion and understanding personality profiles sales in real estate