The Real Estate Sessions

You've undoubtedly heard various business names, but @properties for a real estate company? There has to be a compelling story behind that name. Listen in and get the story behind the naming from my guests Thaddeus Wong and Michael Golden, the co-CEOs and co-Founders of @properties and co-CEO's of Christie's International Real Estate. in this episode of The Real Estate Sessions. Long story short, they believed that building something bigger than themselves was the key to success and named their company after this thought. Starting their firm after an opportunity from a client who offered them his business after they left their previous company where the duo worked, they have come so far as to make it run successfully for over 23 years now! And despite some challenges along the way, their business has only flourished.

The secret to their success? That's a lot of things, including dedication and hard work. But two of the most important ones, they will tell you, are culture and relationships. Thad and Mike have, for the longest time, focused on building a strong sense of community among their agents and offered support and guidance through financial education and marketing programs. They have helped their agents feel connected and not isolated, even during a difficult period in the market. Their core value of relationships has paid off, leading to their best growth during and after the downturn.

Their company also has a unique approach to technology adoption. They have a team of engineers who have been building their technology stack for the past 15 years, focusing on creating a fully integrated platform for real estate agents that saves time and offers convenience. They understand the needs of real estate agents as they were salespeople themselves for many years and continue to adapt their program to meet the changing needs of agents!

In addition to technology, @properties has integrated Christie's International Real Estate brand into its platform, providing a complete end-to-end transaction solution. The company believes that having local independent leaders as partners, rather than having a corporation own all brokerages, is the key to obtaining the best agents with an entrepreneurial spirit. They aim to provide value to the homeowner, eventually increasing referrals and repeat usage. Listen to the episode for more!

Success clues from today's episode:

● A strong sense of community and close relationships with coworkers is more important to many people than the pay they receive, leading to their leadership team not losing anyone of substance.

● @properties navigated a difficult market period by offering support and guidance to their agents through financial education and marketing programs and focusing heavily on building and maintaining relationships between agents.

● The duo's core business value is relationships, and this focus has paid off, leading to their best growth during and after the downturn.

● @properties has been careful about its technology investments and has created a complete end-to-end solution, setting it apart from competitors.

Meet The Guests! 

Thaddeus Wong and Michael Golden are the Co-Founders & Co-CEOs of Properties.

Time Stamps 

[00:00] Sneak peek

[00:40] Intro

[01:02] Meet Thad and Mike

[01:58] Mike's experience growing up in Boston and landing in Chicago

[02:49] How Thad got to Chicago

[03:29] life before real estate for Thad and Mike

[04:47] The duo's interest in sports when coming to Chicago

[06:32] Thad and Mike's admiration for Michael Jordan, Kareem, and LeBron

[09:53] Mike and Thad's impressions of each other before partnering for their business and how it's evolved over time

[11:58] How the duo decided to create a brokerage 

[13:54] Why relationship-building and work culture are essential in real estate

[16:20] Is culture a buzzword today? Do people live it?

[17:37] The duo shares their darkest days in real estate and why it was an actual test of their leadership abilities

[20:05] Early adopters or the build-on-your-stack kind — which category does the duo fall lean towards?

[22:49] The duo talks about their real estate platform

[25:06] Thad and Mike's thoughts on business expansion

[26:33] The future of real estate tech

[29:27] One piece of advice for real estate agents just getting started in the industry

[30:46] Reach out to Thad and Mike

Connect with Thad and Mike:

Thad Wong

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thad.wong.54

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaddeuswong/

Mike Golden 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.golden.7127

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/migolden/

Another quick hit to catch up with a guest from the past. Phil Sexton was last on in June 2018.

I ask Phil about the best thing to happen since then, what's the last thing he broke on his Ford Raptor while off-roading, what's next for the Sexton's and lastly, What has his interest right now in the world of real estate.

It's a fun chat and Phil is as funny as ever, Cheers!

How did a Fine Arts degree holder with a background in theater and entertainment become one of the USA's most known real estate agents? 

It happened out of necessity when Ronna Chew and her husband had to buy new homes because they often transferred to different towns. And though Ronna found it challenging back then, Bob's support, passion, and faith in them led them to a solution—get into real estate. And they did. Over time, the couple saw unbelievably humbling growth and paved their niche in the industry as pro real estate business owners!

In today's episode, as you listen to Ronna's story of getting into real estate and becoming a seasoned real estate agent, you'll learn many things about the art and skill of business-building, with a side of lessons on real estate, choice, and client support. Smashing doubts and stereotypes around real estate, Ronna explains why she feels drawn toward it. Maybe it's your real jam. She also reveals what it's like forming and running a business with her partner, the methods and principles which help her maintain high team standards at her workplace, and how, despite anything, she makes sure she's there with her team, for them!

Listen in!

Success Clues:

1. A good attitude is critical: Cultivate a positive mindset to succeed in real estate.
2. Be open to feedback: You need to be able to listen to experienced agents and take their advice. Ask questions if you need help understanding something.
3. Mindset is essential: Most agents fail within the first two years, often due to a lack of the right attitude.
4. Financial preparedness: You need to either have someone supporting you financially or have six months of savings to fall back on, as it may take a while to start earning a decent income.
5. Support from others: Finding a mentor or someone who can support you is essential for success in real estate.
6. Importance of the right ingredients: A good attitude and feedback are the foundation for success, like the broth in soup. The agents and staff are like added ingredients that make the industry thrive.

Meet The Guest! 

Ronna Chew is the co-founder at The Bon and Ronna group, representing Maryland's finest properties with exceptional skill using the most innovative technologies currently available!

Time Stamps 

[00:00] Episode Sneak-peek

[00:31] Intro

[01:09] Meet Jman

[02:00] Ronna talks about growing up in Maryland and how the place is like 

[03:23] How is it like growing up close to Washington, DC?

[06:05] What Ronna planned on becoming when 20 years old

[09:59] How Ronna met her husband

[11:00] How Ronna got into real estate

[18:50] How Ronna's team and work culture at her company looks like

[19:46] Getting into brokerage with Berkshire Hathaway

[21:41] Maintaining healthy relationships and high standards with your team

[23:35] Deciding your non-negotiables for your real estate business team

[25:17] Leveraging technology for business growth

[27:21] One piece of advice for an agent getting started in real estate 

[30:04] Get in touch with Ronna

Connect with Ronna

● Website: www.bobandronna.com

● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1366692283

● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronna-corman-chew-538b1813

The Productive App will prepare you for the call before you even answer the call. This app is really useful, especially in real estate, because of all the little details you can have in your calls. The Productive Call Assistant will take notes for you and remind you of all the important info. Join Bill Risser as he talks to Enlai Chu about his Productive app and what it does. Enlai is the Founder & CEO of Productive.app. He has over 20 years of experience in messaging, voice, and video communications. He will show you how to solve one of the biggest pain points for real estate agents; double data entry. Make it so that once you’re done with your call, you’re done with your work today!

—

I have got a great episode for you. A piece of technology, first of all, that I never knew existed about. We have got the founder of the company. The tool is called Productive. It is a productive app and it changes the way you will use your mobile phone. You got to read as we are going to be sharing this with you. He is up in the Bay Area, where all the great technology comes out of. He has got some great stuff to share and I can’t wait to get this thing started.

—

Enlai, welcome to the show.

Thank you, I’m happy to be here.

You and I met not too long ago and we are both working with EXIT Realty on some cool project they are doing. It was nice to chat with you because 1) You have this amazing technology that I might have drilled you with a bunch of questions about, but 2) It is cool that we have products that are going to be able to play off and help each other. It is a nice situation.

I’m excited to be here and talking to you again. Thanks for the invite.

The very first thing I ask on the show is where you grew up or where you are from, so I will start that off with you. What was home for you?

I grew up in Vancouver, Canada. If you are from the Pacific Northwest, the question is always, “Is that VC or Washington?” I grew up in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I went down and finished off my school there and did my university at the University of British Columbia. I spent a few years working there. My cousins had moved there and liked it. The family decided to head over and my brother as well, so we all went there. Great food and weather if you are okay with the rain. It was a wonderful place to grow up.

It is the trade-off with any of the Pacific Northwest is the rain, but I have been to Vancouver. My wife and I journeyed up there in 1984 for the World’s Fair. You were not there yet, I’m guessing. It is such a beautiful city. I feel it is the most European city that I have ever been to in the United States, is that kind of flow?

It is multicultural, and that was one of the things that were great to explore. You have got the bilingual language thing going on with French and English, and then going to different parts of the country. You feel that European side of the country, but that was one of the big reasons why it was so comfortable, and it was almost like having the experience of traveling the world in a single location.

As an entrepreneur, thinking about the strategic reasons why your company can get acquired is good to have in mind.

CLICK TO TWEET

The rain thing was interesting because it does rain a lot, but it is also one of those opportunities for appreciation of sunshine. When the wind stopped, the clouds are parted, you can hear the angels singing, and everybody is out. Obviously, the air outside was clean and fresh almost all the time. I loved it here.

We made the quick trip over to Victoria, which is a whole other world. It is a cool place. If you love to ski, you will love it. I love Vancouver.

Did you get up to Whistler or any of the local mountains?

We were there in the summertime. We did go to Banff and Lake Louise and all that good stuff. That was the fun part and getting up into the Rockies.

You got everything, skiing, hiking, and city life all in the same location.

Let’s get back to work. You get a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia. What was the first gig out of school? I had a good friend of mine who said, “It is not the first gig you get out of school. It is the second job that matters more.” I would like to find out what that first one was.

My first gig was in the semiconductor industry, and Electrical Engineering gives you the option to venture into either software or hardware and different industries like Chip Design. I started out in the application side of semiconductors, building software that controls the robots and manufacturing for chips. I got the travel to fabs and where the bunny suits. I did that as my first job out of school.

In high school, you knew you were going to start your own company. You had that entrepreneurial drive in you. Is that right or wrong?

I did. I wanted to invent, create, and build stuff. Interestingly, I did not know what an entrepreneur was. I did not know what that word meant in high school. I remember in one of my college interviews, one of the questions was, “Who is an entrepreneur that you respect the most?” This was back when I was in high school, and I did not know who to say. I said Lee Iacocca because back at that time, he was changing things around. I do not think that was the answer that the interviewer was expecting, but that was the first introduction to that word.

You are right. Once I got accustomed to thinking about it, I had to make a decision on what major I was going to go through in university. It was a choice between engineering or business. I remember my conclusion was that if I started with engineering, I could go off and do an MBA or a Business Degree afterwards, but I couldn’t do it the other way around. I couldn’t do a Business undergrad and then get a grad in Engineering. That was how I started out in engineering.

Let’s continue the path. You then ended up moving down to the Bay Area, San Francisco, South of the Bay in Silicon Valley, and you went to school and got your MBA there.

Productive App: Productive will prepare you for the call, so you’re not trying to remember who or why someone is calling you. They basically prepare you for the call before you even answer the call.

I did. I had joined a startup company in the Bay Area. A good friend of mine moved down, and they needed engineers. This was one of the first Voice over IP companies that were starting at that time. Working in telecom has always intrigued me because it is a rapidly growing industry. I jumped at the opportunity to come down to the Bay Area. While I was here, I did my MBA at UC Berkeley because I knew I wanted to round out my skill sets on the business side. I was going to start a company. I came down here and did the engineering thing and the end of the school thing. It was a wonderful experience.

While looking at your CV, you have been involved with seven different companies that have been acquired. Some of those were your companies. I’m going to call you an expert in the process of working at a company that gets acquired. There got to be some pros and cons to that process. It would be neat to know that because I have never been able to ask that question to a guest.

I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert because I did not make them all happen. I have been part of companies that were acquired and they were all acquired for different reasons. The first one was acquired for strategic reasons. The first company I was at was a company that was acquired by Cisco. Back then, the Voice over IP space had started to boom and it was going to drive a lot of data traffic. For Cisco, it was a strategic opportunity, but it has been a whole series of opportunities through the acquisitions. The hostile acquisition is the formal word of having stock bought up of a public company.

What I learned through it all was thinking about the strategic reasons why acquire a company. It was good to have in mind, especially when I started my own company. I had a previous company that was acquired by Skype and to them, it was a strategic reason. We were in the messaging space, Skype was strong in the voice space, and it was a good fit with IP. Going forward, it is always good to have in mind high-level thinking of, “What could potentially happen down the road?” As an entrepreneur, that is critical that you have to think ahead and see what the possible paths for your company are.

It seems to me that a lot of the young entrepreneurs have an idea to get going with it and are thinking too hard about the exit up front instead of maybe working hard on the product.

It is never a bad idea to think about exits, especially if you are raising money. If you are building a company as a cashflow business, you are not as worried about what the outcomes are from an exit perspective, but if you have investors, you want to do it because you are responsible for the stakeholders as well. In the grand scheme of things, it also make sure that you are aligning products either from a competitive perspective or whether it is a synergistic perspective to get partners working with you. It is super important to always plan ahead. It is all part of the entrepreneurial path.

It's never a bad idea to think about exit strategies, especially if you are raising money.

CLICK TO TWEET

Let’s talk about what you are doing now. I’m going to call it Productive. I know there is a parent company and some other stuff going on there. You tell a great story. I have heard you say it a couple of different times. Let’s share with the audience the history of the cell phone. How did you talk about that when you were presenting to a room full of people?

I started this company through some personal experience. At my last company, we were one of the early innovators in virtual numbers, which was the ability to procure second phone numbers for your phone calls. These were phone numbers that people could add on and get additional functionality that was not available on their primary cell phone numbers.

What we learned was that people were excited about the second phone number because of the additional feature sets that they got, but they did not want to have to manage an additional number or have to give out a different number because at the end of the day, they always end up either getting confused or people are going to keep using the original cell phone number that they had, so they now have multiple numbers they have to manage.

Therefore, if we were going to provide additional functionality that people were excited about that was truly useful, we would have to do it on the primary cell phone number, which was that number that people have had for years now. If you think back about the very first phone that you got and the phone calls on that phone, or if you got a call, you could do 1 of 2 things. You could either pick up the call or hit the red button, you hang up the call, and it sends it to voicemail. Fast forward, decades for some of us, and your phone rings, you can either hit the green button to pick up the call or you hit the red button and decline the call. That hasn’t changed.

We also learned that it wasn’t the ringing part or the hangup part that mattered. It was the conversation and the information that you exchanged during the call that mattered. The question was, “How do we enable productivity features for people to work more efficiently with these phone calls?” Even now, when you get a call, you are probably scrambling for a notepad or if you are lucky, you are sitting in front of a computer with Evernote open or some note-taking software, and you are able to capture the information manually. That is what you have to do now.

Why are we doing things manually? Why are we capturing information manually? The other forms of communication that you use, whether it is email or messaging, we do not take notes after you read an email or read the text message. This is the last form of communication now that people have to manually do work because there are no features on top of these basic phone calls that we have. I wanted to bring and combine all of the technologies that are available now and enhance the native cellphone calls on your phone.

This works for any salesperson anywhere in the country, right?

It is a lot deeper than that. It is interesting because when we first started, we had a lot of people asking us if anybody still used the phone call. The people who asked those questions are thinking from a perspective of, “I use a lot of video conference calls,” so everything is moving towards video conference calls. They forget that there is a whole segment of people that aren’t sitting in front of the computer 100% of the time nor do people have plans for voice calls 100% of the time. It is very much like when messaging comes out, emails are going away.

Productive App: Virtual or secondary numbers didn’t last because of the extra work. People were excited about the additional features. But they didn’t really want to have to manage an additional number.

Every single communication medium has its purpose. You can probably think of a time when you have been messaging somebody or emailing back and forth, and all of a sudden, someone decides to give somebody a call because they need to get things done quickly. This is exactly the same. It is never going to replace video calls, like video calls are never going to replace phone calls, because one is planned, one is ad hoc. There are so many reasons. They all serve a purpose.

We are focusing on industries where it is the norm for voice calls to be part of this toolkit that people use to conduct their business. There is a lot of these industries, real estate, sales, legal industry, recruiting, and finance. We have a whole list of industries that have come to us to integrate with their digital workflows.

Let’s talk about real estate and realtors who live on cell phones. We know that. Talk about the pain points that you are solving for them. Even though real estate is not your background, you embraced the real estate world with your product. I love how you can lay out a scenario as to how this works for a realtor.

We did not start in real estate. Interestingly, we started out in sales because we came out of an accelerator called Alchemist, which is a B2B and an enterprise focus accelerator up in the Bay Area. We were exposed to the Salesforce and HubSpot world, the general CRMs, that serve the sales market. We started there, but we started getting a lot of inbound requests for integration with real estate CRMs.

That opened up a whole door of new CRMs. We had never come across and realized that in every one of these industries, there were systems that people have put in place to try to organize their data. They had the need to collect information to get that, what we call the full 360 for every touchpoint, to try to update every customer record and communication. They were having to do this manually on their phone calls.

Every other communication channel had integrations except for this final gap they had. Real estate was a pull and we realized that this was a perfect use case because agents live on their phones. They are not sitting in front of the computer, driving or multitasking. They are really busy. This was a perfect opportunity for us to bring the technology and try to automate the work for a realtor. That is why we are focusing on this industry right now.

Let’s go ahead and walk through a use case. First of all, this is what blew my mind the first time I heard it. These integrations are so deep. Let’s walk through it. I’m driving down the street and I get a phone call. As a realtor, how do I use your product?

Phone calls are the last form of communication today that people have to manually do work.

CLICK TO TWEET

The first thing we do is when a phone call comes in, we pull as much information about the caller for you as we can. These are from public sources. If this person is someone you have never talked to before, we try to identify the name of the caller for you. The typical information to get when somebody calls you is a name because this is going to lead to your ability to now go enter the person as a lead in your CRM or even to be able to put them into your address book. We will try to look it up for you, so you do not have to talk on the phone.

If you have a CRM, we call the contact with CRM, pull information about the caller from your CRM to instantly prepare you for the call, so you are not trying to remember. “The name looks familiar,” but you can’t remember what...

AI and automation are everywhere—the buzz is on the rise, even in the real estate space, and many are worried. But should you? What can you do to keep your business thriving during monumental change?

Hone in on your creativity and keep yourself industry-updated always, says my guest for today's episode of Real Estate Sessions, Jman Maneiro. Going from trade jobs like tooling and machining to sales and eventually real estate, one thing kept Jman moving and winning. Being creative and up-to-date about the happenings around his industry helped JMan grab the right opportunities as they came to shape his career positively. 

How did Jman get into real estate? The tiresome monotony of working at a machine for long hours and the lack of purpose in his older jobs led him to discover opportunities elsewhere. To top it all, when moving back to Rochester, Jman had a lousy experience buying a house—and that's where the interest in real estate came about. He started working at a large, independently owned brokerage in Rochester to learn the real estate business but found that the management was too micromanaging. That's when he decided to move to REMAX, where he found more freedom to develop his brand, and came up with his nickname "Jman" because the brokerage wouldn't release his name, and thus began his real estate investing journey.

After giving it significant thought, Jman finally uncovered that, just like anyone else, he wanted to align toward his goal of making a difference in the world and living a life worth living. In his experience in the real estate industry, he initially struggled with feeling like his contributions needed to be recognized. He eventually started volunteering and working his way up to leadership positions. Through volunteering, he was able to have a positive impact on the industry and train other agents to be better in technology and serve their clients better. It's not about the money for him, but rather making a difference and helping others. And

Today, aside from being a realtor, he works as a speaker and offers courses, like the popular "How to be a Virtual Agent," to help others succeed in their professional journeys. Head over to this episode to hear more about his work and the lessons from his experience.

Meanwhile—

Success Clues:

1. No matter the size of your market, every real estate investor can use more confidence in their business to succeed.
2. With automation and AI tools disrupting various industries, the need for honing your creativity becomes larger than ever.
3. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
4. Work with a mentor to keep yourself accountable for your growth goals.

Meet The Guest! 

Jeremias "JMan" Maneiro is an International Speaker, Global Online Presenter, Emcee, Video Influencer, Social Media Specialist, and Architect of The American Dream.

Time Stamps 

[00:00] Episode Sneak-peek

[00:21] Intro

[00:54] Meet Jman

[01:42] Jman's experience being born and raised in Rochester, New York + the biggest misconception about the place.

[02:52] People's most prominent conception when they learn where Jman is from: population, football, movies!

[06:04] Jman's entrepreneurial tilt + extroverted nature and how it set the backdrop for his real estate investing career

[07:14] Jman's first job in a production-type setting, how he got into it, and why he disliked it

[10:17] Teaming up with ReMAX for kickstarting his brokerage career + where his nickname Jman came from

[11:27] Why Jman stepped up at the state level of New York + his volunteering activities

[15:24] All about the Jman seminars: How did it happen? How did Jman decide to get into speaking?

[18:31] The importance of videos in real estate (since 2009)

[21:57] How the pandemic hit Jman's life and business and stirred change

[23:00] What were people asking about the most during the virtual seminars during the pandemic?

[26:01] A day in Jman's life working with Douglas Elliman 

[28:00] The most requested topic for Jman as he anticipates this year

[29:35] One piece of advice for people getting started in real estate 

[30:42] Get in touch with Jman

Connect with Jman

● Website: https://www.jmanseminars.com/

● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JManSpeaks

● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmanspeaks/

● YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JManSpeaks

In this TRES Rewind, we revisit Bill Lublin, gentleman, and man about town, co-creator of E-PRO and emcee for many NAR TechEdge events, including the Tampa event on July 19th. Check out NARTechEdge.com for more details. Enjoy Bill’s episode from October 2015.

Are you feeling stuck in a career that doesn't fulfill you? Take a chance and follow your heart - it might lead you down a path to career satisfaction. Owner of RE/MAX Capital Realty, Kendall Bonner, was a lawyer for 20 years in Florida practicing criminal law, workers' compensation insurance defense, and bankruptcy law. She became a real estate agent, even though her husband took a long time to come to terms with the move. After becoming a real estate agent out of boredom and wanting to do something more interesting, it quickly turned into a full-time career that required commitment. This chance decision happened to be one of her best career moves ever. She got her real estate license and joined a brokerage with many listings and closings, initially focusing on being a great listing agent. She practiced as an agent before owning her own brokerage firm and becoming a multiple business owner to serve her more significant goals. She has had an incredible journey of growth and learning as an entrepreneur, which you'll hear about in today's episode. 

She also discusses her upbringing in the Inland Empire area of California, including growing up in San Dimas and attending South Hills High School. She talks about her education, including earning a bachelor's degree in English and Women's Studies from UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside and attending law school. Throughout the interview, Bill and Kendall discuss the importance of constantly nurturing relationships and expanding one's network to have a healthy pipeline of business opportunities. Kendall mentions growing up with an entrepreneurial mother who owned her medical practice and that she learned the value of hard work and dedication at a young age. The two also discuss Kendall's experiences as a real estate agent and business owner, including the challenges and lessons she has learned along the way. Overall, the interview provides incredible insight into Kendall's background, her real estate career, and what you can do to get yours up and successfully running!

Success clues:

● Invest your time into networking. Business growth comes from connecting with people you know and don't.

● Take inventory of your transferable skills – they can help you pave a new path from your existing one.

● The best advice for beginners in real estate is to find a team and team leader who would guide and train you to become better in the business.

Meet The Guest!

Kendall Bonner is a leader, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. She has been a Florida-licensed attorney since 2003. She is the broker/owner RE/MAX Capital Realty and team leader of The Kendall Bonner Team, starting her real estate journey in 2011.

Time Stamps

[00:00] Sneak peek 

[00:17] Intro

[02:18] Growing up in San Diego, California

[07:20] Kendall's background as an attorney and how she got her real estate license.

[11:21] Kendall's transferable skills to real estate from law

[13:55] The decision to start her brokerage firm and the vision behind it

[16:08] How Pasco County has changed in the last ten years

[19:49] networking + Business growth: How REMAX has helped Kendall's career and business

[24:17] Why she decided to bring in a managing broker to run the team

[26:27] A team is an opportunity for you to help two groups of people – the new licensee and the agent who doesn't have the wherewith

[31:09] What's a new tech thing Kendall's fired up about?

[35:08] advice for new agents getting started: Joining a team, get properly trained and get a strong leader who would help you achieve what you want to achieve

[37:45] How to reach out to Kendall online

Connect with Kendall

        ● Website: https://www.besttamparealestateagents.com/

        ● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendallebonner/

        ● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KendallEBonner

Real estate is not just grinding content for your online marketing strategies and waiting for people to come knocking on your door. In reality, you have to put in a lot of work and effort to produce engaging materials that resonate with your target market. Joining Bill Risser is Katie Day, Team Lead of MoveMeToTexas, powered by Real Broker, LLC. She looks back on her ups and downs as a college management major who jumped from one business to another until she achieved residential real estate success. Katie talks about how she builds a large following through her YouTube videos, the challenges of marketing in Instagram, and the needed mindset to win now that the real estate competition transcends to digital platforms.

—

Welcome to Episode 304. As always, thank you so much for tuning in and telling a friend. We’re going to talk to Katie Day. Katie is the Team Lead of the MOVEMETOTX Team Powered by Real Broker, LLC. We’re going to talk to another real operation. I’m excited to chat with Katie. She’s doing some great things in the world of technology to help our customers with their marketing and other things. Let’s get this thing started. Katie, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Katie, thanks for being on the show. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’ll start at the beginning like I always do. I did some digging, and somehow, I think there’s a Florida tie with you. Is it possible that you’re a Florida native, or do I have that part of it a little bit wrong?

I am not a Florida native. I grew up in Maryland, so I lived there for the first portion of my life through high school. My parents were retiring to Florida when I graduated from high school, so they wanted me down there. When I went to the University of Tampa, toured it, I saw the campus and everything there, I was like, “How could I not go here?” That’s where I ended up for college.

I live in St. Petersburg, just across The Bay from Tampa, and that University of Tampa campus is spectacular. I think it originally 100 years ago was a hotel. Would you mind sharing your thoughts about that campus and your experience there?

The University of Tampa was right on the Hillsborough River. It’s an absolutely gorgeous campus and the hotel is now administration buildings, classrooms and stuff like that, but they have these big minarets. It’s like the Russian-style architecture minarets. It’s a stunning campus. They have Wi-Fi at the pool. It’s 30 to 40 minutes from the beach. As an eighteen-year-old that’s being told that they are no longer living at home and can do whatever they want, why wouldn’t you go live near the beach and have Wi-Fi at the pool?

I said it was to study. I never took a computer to the pool, but it was an amazing time. I loved living there. I lived in St. Pete for a little while as well, Orlando, Naples, but as my time in Tampa, especially as a young adult getting out of my parent’s home, was an absolute blast. I loved my time in that area of Florida.

It probably was the perfect distance away from mom and dad, right?

Yeah. They live in Naples. That’s where they moved to. I was looking at Florida Gulf Coast, which was like 30 minutes away. I’m like, “That’s an unexpected pop-in.” Two and a half hours, you’ve got to put some time and thought into coming to visit. I also looked at the University of Florida and things like that, but that was further away. It was a good happy medium between the two. Being close enough to drive home for the weekend or a meal or two, but far enough away that they weren’t popping and I was popping on them on a regular basis.

What area of study was your degree in?

I got a degree in Management. I didn’t know what direction I wanted my life to go in. I knew that business seemed the smart route as far as college went. I was like, “I’ll get a Business degree.” Getting a degree in Management, I’d like to manage people or things. That was my route and I got the General Business degree, figuring it would bode well in any circumstance.

Part of my research showed that you worked for Carrabba’s. It’s part of Bloomin’ Brands, a big company based here in Tampa. Is that right?

Bloomin’ Brands, that’s not what it was when I worked there. I worked for Carrabba’s. It was my favorite restaurant. Fun fact, I worked there in high school. In my town in Maryland, the city that I lived in, they opened up a restaurant and I saw it driving. I was 16, maybe even 15, but I saw it and was like, “I’m going to get a job there.” I got a job as a hostess. I worked there throughout the rest of my high school timeframe. Once I was eighteen, I became a server.

When I moved to Florida, they obviously had them all over in Tampa and Naples, where my parents live. I worked in both locations there, whether I was home for the summer or at school. I loved it. It’s also great being a poor college student is getting money paid in tips. You come home with a couple of $100 cash at the end of the night. I was rich compared to my friends at that time. If there’s food that’s leftover or things that were cooked that were mistakes or that the chef or cook throw away for a couple of extra bucks, you’re getting good food to eat. I was eating very well through college.

The reason why I like to go back in time when I talk to my guests is for stories like that. I’ve been doing this show for a few years. It seems so many realtors have come out of either servers or bartenders, right behind that would-be teachers and nurses. Why do you think it’s so for the real estate industry people to have that level of service?

Online Marketing: Many realtors originally came from hospitality jobs, with teachers and nurses following closely behind them.

I definitely see a lot of the bartenders and servers. I think that hospitality is a hard industry as well. Not that real estate is easy, but I think that a lot of people see similar parallels of the harder I work, the more money I can make. I think it’s the customer service and taking care of people aspect of things. People always need food and housing. I think both are high-stress environments. There are a lot of parallels. I do think that people in hospitality do well in real estate. I see a lot of that bartenders, servers, hospitality hotels, and stuff like that coming into real estate.

You had a training role during your time with Carrabba’s. Can we talk about that a little bit?

I was a trainer with them throughout college, but when I was graduating from college, it was like, “Am I going to stay in hospitality and go into management? Am I going to go find a job? What am I going to do?” For me, in doing what my parents wanted me to do, I looked for jobs with law firms or business-type jobs. I did end up leaving the service industry. I guess that would have been 2008 throughout probably ’06, ’07 and ’08. I did train and do stuff like that for Carrabba’s.

Somehow, we now have to get you into the wonderful world of multifamily real estate. How did that happen?

I got into multifamily directly out of college. I interviewed for jobs for insurance agencies, law firms and legal assistance. I got a Management degree. It’s not like I had this super-specific degree that I had a specific career path. I was like, “What business jobs can I get that I make decent enough money to be able to pay some bills now that I’m out of college?”

I found a property management company that was hiring what they deemed a manager in training or a manager in a training program. Basically, their thing was they brought people on at leasing agents. Looking back on it, they bring people on as leasing agents and people that showed promise, they would show them different aspects of the business like the maintenance, management, budgeting, finance and paying bills.

If we went through that program, they would potentially move us to another apartment community where we would become the property manager. It’s a great program for them. Looking back on it now, I was twenty years old when I got my first property. I’m like, “What were they thinking?” It gave me so much business knowledge on how to manage.

I don’t think that I would be where I am now if I didn’t have that. I totally now think that was too soon. I had too much responsibility and made so many mistakes. I don’t think there’s any other job or industry that I would’ve gotten that much knowledge, high-level management and business knowledge anywhere other than the path that I took and what happened there.

Initially, you worked in the St. Petersburg, Tampa area, but I think this company took you around the country. Is that right?

Yeah. Initially, I worked in South St. Petersburg, Orlando, Naples, Birmingham, Alabama and Houston, Texas. Looking back on it, hiring young kids right out of college, you normally don’t have kids, spouses, pets and stuff like that. You’re young and have nothing going for you. You have no ties. It’s great for them to call and be like, “Do you want to move to Orlando next week for $5,000 more a year?” “Yes.” “Do you want to move to Birmingham, Alabama for $10,000 more a year?” “Sure.” “Do you want to move to Houston, Texas?” You always say, “Yes.”

Looking back on it, a lot of them were lateral moves, but it’s a new city and it’s a challenge. They find people with that drive or personality that want to fix and do everything. It was definitely a great move on their part. Looking back on it now, my negotiation skills clearly were terrible. I’m like, “I’ll move across the country.” I was all over Florida and Alabama, very briefly for about four months and then to Houston in 2011.

How does residential real estate enter the picture?

I was in multifamily here in Houston. I ended up working that and going into single-family property management for a while. All of the experiences I had, I learned a ton about business, management and how to be and not to be a leader and all of that. It got to the point that I was working hard until 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 PM, and getting paid the same amount of money every two weeks. I was working hard. For some of the companies I worked at, there are a lot of red tapes of like, “I’m in charge of everything,” but one of my departments is headed up by someone else.

They may mess things up, but I’m responsible for what they’re doing. I have no authority over the type of things. It was frustrating to me to get beat up on calls with our executive team or earnings calls or things like that because other companies I worked for were publicly traded. It’s like, “I’m getting beat up for things that I have no control over.” I have to take these licks. It was frustrating to me to be putting in all of this time and energy to something that I didn’t have full ownership over.

When I left property management to go into residential, I basically had saved up money. I had a year-end bonus and stuff like that. I was like, “I’m putting six months of money away in the bank.” I gave it to my fiancé at the time and was like, “Here are six months’ worth of my bills and I’m going to try this real estate thing out and see what happens. If I’m going to work this hard, it is for myself and roll the dice on myself rather than work this hard to make the same amount every two weeks.” That was my moment.

Who was your first brokerage? Who did you hang your license with first?

This is a funny story, and something wasn’t that funny until 2021. I got my license and affiliated with Real back in 2015. I was with Real from 2015 to the end of 2016. Now, I’m back. This is why it’s a funny story. I saw an ad online that was high splits, low fees and no monthly fees and this and that. I don’t even remember now at the time if they had monthly fees then, but super-agent friendly brokerage and tech-focused, this that and the other. I was like, “This seems cool.” I like money, so I affiliated with Real to start my real estate career.

Many of the agents I’ve interviewed on this show started off their careers with what we’ll call the training brokerages, yet you didn’t. You decided to go with the one that had the technology and the cool compensation. What was the difference? What made you leave Real that first time?

The company was founded in 2014. It was in its infancy stages. They did have a lot of training, even for a very small brokerage that was tech-based with no local offices and all of that. It’s nothing like it is now, but I still got my training. There are people that were then that are still here now. It’s funny seeing names again that I saw years ago. For me, everything was fine and I think it was good. In Texas, that’s big as apartment and home locating for rentals. I was doing a lot of that. You don’t need a ton of training for that, especially since I came from multifamily and single-family management.

I understood the process. I knew how to work with apartment communities. I knew all of that, but one of my friends, who’s still a good friend to this day, was an agent with Coldwell Banker. That’s how I knew him from different circles. He ended up getting promoted to be the branch manager of an office. He called me and was like, “I want you to come in and meet with me. I just got promoted.” I was like, “I have no interest in leaving my brokerage. I’m good. I appreciate it. Congratulations to you, but I’m good.”

He kept wearing me down and was like, “Why don’t you come in and see the office?” I’m like, “It’s four walls and a roof. You’ve got maybe some cubicles and desks. I’m good.” He wore me down again and was like, “Come in. We’ll grab lunch, whatever.” I go in and I’m dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. That’s my casual wear. He greets me and walks me around a little bit. I think nothing of this. He’s like, “Let me introduce you to someone.” He opened up a door and was like, “This is my buddy, Chet. I’ve got to take this call. I’ll be right back.”

He closes the door. I realized at that moment, when he closed the door, I was like, “I’m in a job interview right now. I’m in here in jeans and a t-shirt, and this man is in a full suit.” Clearly, I can have a conversation, but I was not planning to have a conversation about my career or goals or what I’m doing in real estate. I was there for almost two hours. I totally hit it off with another manager, Chet. I ended up signing with Coldwell Banker on Monday because I had such a great conversation with them. My buddy was going to be managing the branch. I was with that branch for almost five years and it was great. They got me.

I love a good recruiting story. However, this one doesn’t last because even though you were at Coldwell Banker for five years, something brought you back to Real. What was the difference? Why did you go back?

A few years ago, Real started to change their compensation and agent model and things like that. They added in the stock program and the ability to cap. With that, depending on how much production you have, you can get shares of stock and things like that. I’d always kept an eye on them. I had my news alerts on as you do for a lot of different companies, businesses and names. I was seeing what they were doing. I stayed in touch with our CEO and founder. We would message back and forth over the past five years. He’d be like, “This is happening. You should come back.” I’m like, “I appreciate you. That’s nice. Thanks so much.”

I was all in with Coldwell Banker, but something happened in 2021 that we suddenly were shopping around for a new brokerage. We met with a lot of brokerages. We weren’t planning on leaving and thinking about it. We’re meeting with five different brokerages and seeing what it would look like if we made that move. At that time, Real wasn’t even in the conversation, but I was like, “If we’re considering making a move, we need to call my buddy, Tim Macy, out of San Antonio. He’s been at Real for a year, and I want to see what he thinks about the decisions we’re making and if Real would be a good fit for us, our business and team.”

We started the conversation. I linked back to Tamir, who I’d been talking to for the past five years. I was like, “I think I want to come back. We want to do this.” It escalated quickly from there. We moved our teams. It definitely wasn’t something that we were necessarily planning or looking to make a change. Somehow, we found ourselves interviewing with brokerages. I was like, “If we make a change, it would be one of those moments where I knew that was a mistake, not at least to have the conversation.” We decided to have the conversation and then ended up moving the business.

Now that we’ve got you back at Real, let’s talk about your team. What’s the makeup look like? Buyer’s agents, listing agents or admin, what’s the breakdown?

We are a team of nine agents. We have three admin and a videographer. We’ve got a combination of listing and buyers agents. Generally speaking, when we bring new agents onto the team, they come on as buyer’s agents to understand and ensure that they are good at our processes and how we do things. Especially if they’re experienced and know how to sell a home, but there are different things and processes that we do that differentiate us from other agents or teams in the marketplace.

Online Marketing: Real estate is a relationship business. It is about conversations with your clients and providing value to them.

It’s so that they understand how we do things and can potentially move into doing both listings and buyers if that’s something they want to do. Our admin, we’ve got a marketing coordinator and she helps with social media and getting things scheduled, client events, client mailers and stuff like that. We’ve got two transaction coordinators. We have a videographer who works with us probably about 15 to 20-ish hours a week or so on top of his other stuff.

Katie, let’s talk about your...

Do you want a steady stream of repeat and referral business? Bill Risser introduces Barb Betts, the Owner and CEO of The RECollective. Barb shares how building a real estate business through relationships is her primary focus. Even until now, she still receives referrals from the internet leads she met 20 years ago. That is why real estate agents should want to build the majority of the business by referrals. She shares some of the best ways to do that—from personalized postcards to social media. If you want more tips on how to build a relationship-based real estate business, tune in!

—

My guest is as passionate about relationships as anyone I know. I’m talking about Barb Betts. She’s the Broker, Owner and CEO of The RECollective. She also has a couple of other marketing companies, Relately Marketing and Real Estate by Relationships Academy. She’s doing all great stuff and it’s going to be a blast chatting with her. Let’s get this thing started. Barb, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me, Bill. I’m excited to be here.

I’m happy to have you here. Molly McKinley has been a source of guests for me. You and I get to meet officially at an event this past fall. I interviewed Sara Sutachan and now I’m interviewing you. This is a great day for me. It’s been a lot of fun. Let’s start in Southern California. Are you in the Long Beach area?

I am in the Long Beach area which is situated halfway between LAX and Disneyland.

Are you a native? Did you grow up in Southern California?

I was born, raised and brokered in Long Beach, California.

I grew up in San Diego. I lived there for almost four years. I got the Southern California thing going. I know you have a son who plays baseball at a very high level. Tell me about that.

He was drafted out of Long Beach Wilson High School by the Tampa Bay Rays. He spent many years in the organization. He had some significant injuries that have been challenging, and you throw in COVID in the middle of that. He played Double-A in 2020 for them and was a free agent at the end of the season. There’s this little thing called the baseball lockout going on now. It’s been a little challenging this off-season.

He signed the contracts with the Los Angeles Dodgers. We have moved into the Dodgers Organization now at the Minor League level. The fun fact is all my friends are thinking they are going to see him at the Chavez Ravine in April 2022 and that’s not quite the case. I’m super excited for him to continue his journey and play baseball at such a high level.

What’s his position?

You can balance being a mom and having a successful career in real estate.

CLICK TO TWEET

He’s a left-handed hitting catcher which is unique to the catching position. He is naturally born left-handed. He eats, drinks, sleeps and golfs left-handed. My husband is challenged in the height department. When my husband saw him picking up Cheerios with his left hand, mom wanted to get him a glove for his right hand. Dad said, “I’m not going to have a 5’10” left-handed player that can’t do anything.” It’s a true story. My husband bought him a glove for his left hand and threw balls at him in our living room at a very young age. Chris can throw a baseball harder than I’ve ever seen anyone throw a baseball right-handed. He hits balls 400 feet left-handed.

We get to talk a little bit about this because I worked for the San Diego Padres for twelve years. I love baseball. It’s my thing. The dynamics of a left-handed throwing catcher is an issue because the majority of batters are right-handed. They will be in the way of throws and it’s tougher to throw the third. It’s way easier to throw the first, I would think, because you wouldn’t have to twist around so much. Maybe pick a lot better. I was going to ask you before I knew all of this, “Are you a Dodgers or Angels fan?”

Not so long ago, we were Angel fans, but we did own a Dodger hat, which is a good thing. I never thought I’d say I bleed blue being a SoCal girl and mostly raised in the Orange County side of town. We are Dodger fans overnight. We’ve made a lot of our friends very happy because we have a lot of Dodger fan friends.

We probably should talk about real estate. The baseball fans love this but there’s always somebody who says, “Why do you spend so much time?” It’s because I love it and I want to have a great conversation. You’re approaching twenty years in the real estate industry. Congratulations. That’s amazing. There’s always something. I love the story of how real estate found you.

I’m the typical realtor that had a bad experience buying a home. Many realtors can relate to this where I thought, “If they could do that poor of a job and make that kind of money, I could do better.” I was in accounting. I was a glorified bookkeeper/CFO, but I was not a CFO. I was a bookkeeper but I was good at it. I love spreadsheets but I hate debits and credits and that kind of stuff. I also was a young mom. We just had our son and our daughter was on the way.

I worked for a very challenging boss who was female. She told me one day when my child was very ill that I needed a nanny for situations like this because I’m a working woman. I thought, “No.” I decided, “What can I do where I can have a balance of being a mom and having a successful career?” Since I had a child so young, we were eighteen when we had our son, I didn’t go to college. I didn’t have anything to fall back on. I wanted something I could own and say I’m an expert in. I wanted something that included a license or certificate that didn’t require me to go back to four years of college. You combine the bad experience of buying a home with me wanting that, and every one lands in real estate. That was the easy answer.

I have over 300 interviews on this show and I’d say ten knew they were going to be a realtor at the age of fifteen.

People are going through high school in career class, doing the course and then researching why they should go into real estate.

You started with Prudential, which is not around anymore. They have been absorbed by a couple of places. They were well-known for their training, education, and setting you set yourself up for success. Is that what you found there?

What I found there was the manager. I will never forget when I went to the career night that we used to have back in the days of real estate. It was pouring rain that night. I still went and no one else showed up. We were in a training room and he said, “Let’s go to the conference room and sit down.” I figured he had canceled.

The RECollective: Learning the short sale market was the best thing we did, and we didn’t shy away from that.

One person there is worth his time. I’ll never forget him, Richard Dewitt. He has since passed but he sat down and educated me. He gave me hope and told me I could do it. I know more now if you could fog a mirror and you have a real estate license, you probably can land in a brokerage somewhere. He made me feel special and heard. To that point, they had great new agent training and a mentor program. They had all the things I needed going into the career that I knew nothing about more than just my personal transaction. Education and support are what attracted me to Prudential.

Something tells me that you took some of those lessons from him and you still use them. We were talking about early 2004, 2005 or somewhere in that range. You’re cruising along. I like to ask this question because you understand social media very well. You teach and train. You have an academy. You had to be an early adopter in the office. Were there old people running around going, “You’re never going to amount to anything. Why are you doing that?”

This is really going back. Realtors who are reading who think that internet leads started with The Portal. Let’s call them that to keep names out of it, it didn’t start like that. It started with Yahoo.com. It was the first site to generate buyer and seller leads online. They partnered with Prudential only. It was called The Portal. Each office in our Prudential system had an assigned agent that was the Portal agent. I was the only agent that was willing to take it on because all the other senior agents were like, “That’s never going to turn into anything. The internet is never going to sell a house. No one is going to go online and look for an agent.” We know where we are now.

I tell people that before I got my acting gear and figured out how to do business that sustained my family and me, and allowed me to balance, I did stay up until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning answering internet leads. I was working 37 days straight with no break. There were a lot of agents who said it would never work. This is why this whole NFT world and everything else that we’re in, I don’t understand it yet, but I never say never.

It’s weird watching the swings in the value of crypto, but maybe that’s all part of the process. You never say never, I agree. As we look through your career, you were well-prepared. I’m not sure if you joined the REO world prior to or during the dark days, but that had to be huge for you. Think about the value prop you’re bringing in today’s world. You’re way early on understanding how internet leads work, not all of them close. It’s a small portion, but you got to be consistent with all of them. Now you’re also schooled up and skilled on how to handle that market.

It’s the combination of learning to work the internet leads and what I became passionate about, which I continued through my career. It’s the power of doing business by relationship. Learning those internet leads have the potential to turn into relationships. Although they were frustrating and irritating, some of them were very challenging. Sometimes they are non-responsive and sometimes they ghost you on appointments. The good ones turned into relationships that I still have now.

When they give me referrals and have conversations, or they come to one of our parties, it cracks me up to think we met online years ago before internet leads were even a thing. We then fast forward to what my good friend Glenn calls the great inconvenience of real estate. We all know what happened in ’06 and ’07. I thought, “I’ve got to not ignore this REO world that is going on.” Relationships got me an REO account. A good friend in Arizona who was an REO machine handed us a binder of all the REO contact she had and said, “Go build some relationships.” That’s how we got our first REO account, which led to more REO accounts.

We were not getting 50 to 60 new homes a day like some brokerages were, but I’ll equate it to this last refinance boom. In that period, I didn’t stop working on my relationships because a lot of real estate brokers did. They focused on their banks and left all their other people behind. When the REO world stopped, they came up for air and their clients had moved on to other agents. The REOs, in my husband’s words, were the icing on the cake at the time. It was nice to have a guaranteed 5 or 6 deals a month coming in, but we never forgot our relationships. We got through that and it has been crazy ever since.

Some of those relationships needed you more than ever. That was a big part of what you were doing.

Learning the short sale market was the best thing that we did. We didn’t shy away from that. Those were the hardest days of my career. This market is hard now. Don’t get me wrong. The speed and the exhaustion of the market now are so hard. However, when you have to go into someone who you just celebrated with a few years ago, pop champagne with, give them their keys to their first home, and now you’re having to go in and have an adult conversation about how to break up with their home and divorce their mortgage. That was very hard because these are the people you love. With REOs, they are gone. You have no relationship with them. Short sales were a lot more challenging.

Educate others and give them hope that they can make it.

CLICK TO TWEET

c

You have your own company now and we’re going to talk about that, but there was one more stop along the way. You made a shift over to Keller Williams. What was behind that?

By then, my husband had joined me. We have a small little team. In Prudential, there were some leadership changes at the time. It was an aging brokerage. It didn’t have the technology and the forward-thinking. No one was sitting around talking about ideas and what was coming next. It felt like a change was appropriate. I was a founding member at the Keller Williams that I went to. That was exciting because we got to build something from the ground up and have some influence being on the ALC. We moved and grew our team there. It was a great experience and we’re super glad we did it.

Like many successful realtors, agents and entrepreneurs, you are going to do a lot more than just work for someone else. You’re going to open up your own brokerage and start your own marketing company. Talk about making that leap of faith. It’s a little bit of a leap of faith because now you’re in charge of a lot more things and responsible for a lot more stuff.

I got my broker’s license in 2016. It’s not because I ever thought of opening my own brokerage. It’s because I felt like it was the next step. It was like getting a Master’s in real estate. I already had the Bachelor’s. I was very successful and I thought, “I want to have that higher level of knowledge.” The other reason I did it was I remember leaving Prudential and feeling suffocated that I had to find somewhere else. I thought to myself that if that ever happens again, I don’t want to be forced into finding something else.

That was my backup plan. I can always be on my own if I ever need to leave or if this company closes its doors. A culture shift happened. My team was unhappy and we were unhappy so we thought, “This is the time.” Having the confidence to do it is a big deal. It’s not easy opening your own brokerage, but we had the team and my husband’s support. We did it and never looked back since. It’s been a few years now and it’s the single best decision that we ever made.

I love the name Relately Marketing.

Relately is the marketing company. The real estate company is The RECollective.

What is Relately? What are you doing there?

I’m a relationship junkie. I’ve been, seen and built our business by relationship. I understand intrinsically the power of building a business by relationship, and it’s not just by referral. I don’t like the word referral. If you know me well, I use the word referral internally with people like you. When I talk to my clients, I don’t say the word referral. I use the words introduce and connect me. They are us.

Referrals are whatever agents should want to build their business by and have the majority of their business be that way. What I found is as I teach agents how I do what I do and how I’ve built my systems. One of my key factors in building our business is consistent communication. You have to consistently show up in front of your clients or they will forget you.

The RECollective: You need to be on social media and learn how to do it relationally.

You don’t always have the time to talk to every single person in your database. I believe in the power of mailing to your database. It’s not the large geographic neighborhoods. I’m talking about a list of relationships. We started creating big, large postcards that we mail to our database. We create the content every month and do a combination of personal and professional like, “I love you,” versus, “This is what’s going on in real estate.” Agents started asking me for them and they were like, “I don’t have the time to create them. Can you create them? Can I have your templates?” My staff and I sat down and I thought, “I want to help the industry but I’m not just going to give it away. We worked hard on all of that.”

We decided to launch a marketing company that helps realtors market relationally to their database. We prepare a custom postcard. What I mean by custom is they all look the same. I’m not creating one for every different realtor, but on the back of the postcard, we work on a custom template for you with your photo and information.

We’ve got our mail house and they send it all out for you. You don’t even have to think about it. It includes birthdays, anniversaries, and all the love cards or notes that I send everybody, and social media content. It’s a marketing tool for realtors that want to work relationally and don’t know how to get the message out there, and don’t have a team or a staff to do it for them. That’s how it was birthed and it’s been super successful. We’re happy with it.

Have you ever gotten somebody who says, “I know this is the first few, but I want to send them some leads?”

I don’t care. They can put whoever they want in their database. That’s why I’m launching the academy, to teach them how to do it the right way. What we don’t do is we don’t let you nitpick the content. You got to trust us that this works and we’re doing this the right way. You’re getting the content that I used in the last years and I know it works.

You...

My 5th guest, and the most often heard guest on The Real Estate Sessions, Sean Carpenter, returns for his Short Cuts episode. Sean's speaking career has taken off on a national level, and having seen over 20 of his presentations, it is well deserved.

Listen in and find out more about building relationships, solving problems and having fun!

Carps Corner

Sean on Facebook

Sean on Instagram