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If you’re running a business then you need a system in place. You probably need a dozen systems in place. Technology is making it easier than ever, and today we are looking at how your systems can serve your business.
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The Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)
Transcript:
What’s up? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the episode of the Real Estate Marketing Dude podcast. Folks, we have quite the reward for you today. No pun intended, Caroline, but what we’re going to be chat about, folks, you guys are all running around and your heads cut off. This is the time that you have to go back and like, run your business like a business.
00:03:34:13 – 00:03:54:07
Unknown
No business exists without systems in place. If you don’t have systems in place, you’re not running a business. You’re just another salesperson with their fucking head cut off and you’re running around making sense of nothing. Folks, if you want to right now is the time that while the market sort of changed and revamped, this is when you actually focus on those systems.
00:03:54:07 – 00:04:10:07
Unknown
But everyone always asks me, Mike, what’s a system? What’s a system? What’s a system? A system is something you repeat in your business with each and every client, each and every month, just like McDonald’s makes their burgers. The reason why they taste the same no matter what fucking McDonald’s you go to is because they have a system to how they make their food.
00:04:10:11 – 00:04:28:11
Unknown
That’s what defines their business. Unfortunately, real estate agents don’t have enough systems in their business and that’s why the service doesn’t stick with anyone. And while 90% of the people forget what you do for a living, because when you’re working with them, there’s nothing you’re doing to make them say, Wow, that person is a shit. So what we’re going to do is bring on the coaching, the systems.
00:04:28:11 – 00:04:44:21
Unknown
I just met her a couple of minutes ago. She’s pretty damn impressive. She’s got like a system for everything. And I told her, I don’t want to know any more. I just want a hit record and I want you to tell us the systems that you implement with your agents in your office that has them all so productive.
00:04:44:23 – 00:05:04:11
Unknown
What is it you’re doing? Because while everyone else is sort of floundering in the water and treading water right now, you’re crushing it. And it’s not because of like you got lucky, it’s because you got your shit together and you have systems and people are returning to those systems despite market conditions. So I think I’m to call the show something about systems.
00:05:04:11 – 00:05:20:14
Unknown
But without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guest, Miss Caroline Hobbs. How are you, Caroline? Great, great. Thanks for having me. Well, so listen, there’s a little bit who you are. Where are you from and what the hell are we going to talk about today? Yeah. So my name is Caroline Hobbs. I am here in Silicon Valley.
00:05:20:14 – 00:05:50:09
Unknown
San Jose, California, and I’ve been selling homes for about 15 years now. And I started Word Realty on April will be 11 years. So we’ve got someone Giovani, we’ve learned a lot. And all this time and I’ve really learned about all the benefits of technology and leveraging systems to automate tasks so that you can provide a highly higher level of customer experience for each and every single one of your clients.
00:05:50:11 – 00:06:08:21
Unknown
Thank you. No one talks about the experience for customers at all. Like, you got it. Nobody talks about it. Like if people aren’t saying wow about working with you, like you don’t have a business, you guys and you won’t have a business. So I want to start to beginning with you. You have a brokerage. How many do you run your brokerage like a team, or do you guys run it like a brokerage?
00:06:08:21 – 00:06:28:02
Unknown
And is everyone sort of on the same system that’s within your office? And most people within the brokerage are on my team. I do have some individual agents. But that being said, we do kind of run it as more of a team. And, you know, my whole goal in starting the brokerage was to create something that was really agent friendly.
00:06:28:02 – 00:07:00:12
Unknown
I felt like a lot of the large corporate brokerages didn’t really offer opportunity to lean into your own, like individual superpowers and create a lot of self-expression or, you know, differentiate your business from other people. They want you to be the company person and just copy, paste, repeat, copy, paste, repeat with every single one of their agents. And the fact of the matter is, is relationship is a really a real estate is a relationship business.
00:07:00:14 – 00:07:30:13
Unknown
So if you are not in the business of making friends and meeting people and being able to communicate with people, then you’re in the wrong field. Agreed. So let’s get into the systems because I don’t think anyone has them. Let’s start with just in general, like for individual agents out there. I have a question for you first shoot, How many times have you built systems and torn down again?
00:07:30:15 – 00:07:47:17
Unknown
Well, every day. I mean, that’s basically what I always do. I always just perfect the system. It’s never done. It’s always fucking working. I’m literally building three or four different systems right now for our video clients so that they can have a better client experience. It never stops. The day you stop as the day you get beat by your competitor is what I believe.
00:07:47:17 – 00:08:14:09
Unknown
So I don’t think you can’t stop. I 100% agree. There’s always new technologies. There’s always new things out there that can help improve your current workflow. So I think that that’s one of the areas that a lot of people struggle with is they think, okay, I’m going to spend January focusing on building my systems for the year and then and then the rest of the year, they don’t pay attention to what they’re doing.
00:08:14:11 – 00:08:40:18
Unknown
They don’t even think twice about what their systems are. And to me, that’s kind of how you get left behind. That’s the first step of needing to burn things down again is when you become complacent in an area. And so for me and my team and with all of my agents, one of the things I tell them is if you’re doing anything twice, if you’re putting the information into the database more than twice, you’re being inefficient.
00:08:40:20 – 00:09:08:16
Unknown
And so let’s figure out how we kind of Roto-Rooter it, so to speak, to create a more automated process because we’re all human and we all have lives. We are working because we enjoy the field that we’re in. And this is where we have found some passion to spend a lot of our time and build our careers. But we’re not doing this for fun.
00:09:08:18 – 00:09:51:19
Unknown
And, you know, we are all business people. And I think that with real estate, because of the social side of it, people forget that. And so, for example, you know, making sure that each and every experience from the time that the lead comes into your database to the language that you’re using to reach out to them, whether it’s a video, a text message, just a plain email with with script, each and every route that you like, each method of communication is going to leave a different taste in the Perkins mouth and really, what you’re doing when you’re communicating with new leads as they come in is you’re introducing yourself.
00:09:51:21 – 00:10:15:13
Unknown
So that’s where we start is when you’re looking at building systems. You want to start with your action plans and your action items from the time that it comes into your database, defining them for who they are, what their interests are, how you can help them. Because at the end of the day, they didn’t give you your contact, their contact information for you to harass them on things that they’re not interested in.
00:10:15:15 – 00:10:35:01
Unknown
It needs to be an even exchange of information, and they need to see the value that you bring to the table if you want the relationship to progress. So right here and so we’re talking about lead system here. And basically here’s here’s what most people do. They don’t want they don’t have a system, so they get a lead and then they’ll just follow up via maybe phone.
00:10:35:01 – 00:10:53:02
Unknown
They might send a tax. You might do that for two or three days in a row, but then all sudden just you just forget. And this is what we’re talking about. There’s no system. So it’s got to be like literally every lead has the same experience. That’s what you’re saying here, right? Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, not every lead is going to pick it up.
00:10:53:04 – 00:11:19:18
Unknown
Even when they were just on the computer or on their cell phones making the requests. Not everyone’s going to pick out like say that you are be, you know, type agent lead comes in, you call them within a couple of minutes. So you get that higher, you know, client retention and they don’t pick up. So, you know, maybe they put a bad email down there about phone number is that it?
00:11:19:19 – 00:11:54:03
Unknown
Like, what else can we do? Because at the end of the day, you know, if you’re a team leader or not a team leader, just an agent purchasing leads from a marketing company or whatever, knowing your numbers, understanding your CPU, your clock cost per click, the return that you’re having on that is really, really important. And the reason why it’s important is obviously we want to know what’s what marketing sources are working for us and helping us build our business or what is not.
00:11:54:05 – 00:12:18:22
Unknown
And so the only way that you’re going to be able to do that is using the damn system and following up with your leads. Talk to them. Like I said, you didn’t get into this business just for fun, to make friends. You you got into the business to make money. And so you need to make sure that you’re communicating with people in a way that they understand, in a way that they can catch on.
00:12:18:24 – 00:12:50:16
Unknown
And so personal touches, like from requests going out, you know, following up three on a 360 level with market reports instead of just just checking up, I swear to God in be time, I get an email that’s like just following up with you. I literally I immediately do it. And what should that’s a good a just speaking of that, what should that context be when somebody wants to check it, Hey, you ready in the car to start looking so I can make a commission check?
00:12:50:18 – 00:13:13:19
Unknown
How do you say that? I send him a property. What do you think of this? How did you see that? This one just came by the market. no. And then you find out their intentions as well, you know, and give them something of value. Like don’t just waste their time. And I think one of the other things as an author has been was Phil Jones.
00:13:13:21 – 00:13:35:14
Unknown
And one of the things that he does really well, we we refer to his book as the Bible in our office. And the reason is, is he really helps you frame the mindset of not asking yes or no questions because at the end of the day, how easy is it to say to brush someone off and is like, yeah, yeah, and you don’t even know what they said?
00:13:35:16 – 00:14:03:13
Unknown
Yep, They don’t remember either. No, no, they literally have no clue. You left zero impression, but you say, What’s your experience in selling a home than you understand? Have they ever sold a home before? Have they ever gone through the process? How deep does this conversation need to dive in order for me to build that rapport? Because at the end of the day, people work with people that they know to like and trust.
00:14:03:15 – 00:14:16:24
Unknown
Walk me through walk me through your actual I want to I want to go. I want to live in your world. I want to go. And I’m a lead. I just entered into my information and came to whatever lead source on your system. Walk me through what happens next, because it sounds like every one of your agents are on the same thing.
00:14:17:01 – 00:14:31:18
Unknown
And it’s the consistency and the conformity that creates the results. Right? If everyone was doing something different, you’d never be able to measure, would you? Then you would it be able to make those adjustments that you talked about earlier and then you can. Right. It just doesn’t work. So walk me through this because I think this is good.
00:14:31:18 – 00:14:51:02
Unknown
I want people let’s define what your system is from a new lead and I’ll ask from there. So newly comes into your world. Hey, Caroline Re World Realty. I might be buying or selling. I don’t know. I just came in looking to see my home’s value worth. What happens to me next? Depending on the lead, if it’s a direct connection or not, that kind of changes it.
00:14:51:02 – 00:15:09:12
Unknown
It also every single new lead gets immediately set up onto a drip system. If it’s the seller B they get on the property valuation monthly email immediately. So right off the bat three Choose your own adventure is going to happen. A bond, a lead one. Was it a referral? It’s a referral. It goes into a system. Referral system.
00:15:09:12 – 00:15:27:11
Unknown
It’s probably more personalized, right? If it’s cold, it’s an okay, great. You’re either buyer or seller. If it’s a buyer lead, they’re going to go into the buyer system slash strips of some of that. And if the seller leads a seller slash drip system. So make sure you guys are following this. You can’t talk to everyone the same way they under your world.
00:15:27:11 – 00:15:45:09
Unknown
That’s where most people fuck up. If someone comes into my world talking about selling a house and I’m telling them about buying a house, like we’re not speaking the same language, it’s a little bit of a you got to speak their love language, right? And same thing is, if it’s a referral, like I’m not going to talk to them like I’m going to when I get a referral, I do them or I borrow them.
00:15:45:09 – 00:16:00:09
Unknown
That’s my style. That’s my brand, right? And it’s just the way I am. But if it’s not a referral, I’m not going to borrow or do someone I’ve never met before. That little touch is a system, is what we’re talking about, you guys. And you can’t run a business without it. Okay? I like that. All right. So walk me through that.
00:16:00:09 – 00:16:29:06
Unknown
Now, we actually break our clients down quite a bit further than that. So for us, they’re not just buyer or seller referral. There’s buyers, there are sellers, they’re buyers and sellers, there are investors, there are renters. We bought Zillow leads before you have a plethora of renter leads, you know, doubt and save on because renters are future buyers.
00:16:29:08 – 00:16:58:03
Unknown
There’s no it’s not a garbage lead just because they weren’t ready to buy a house right now. And they just need to be communicated with differently. And then there’s your sphere. Those are your friends. That’s the other parents in your kids classrooms. Those are people involved in your nonprofit, at your church, wherever. And so depending on the level of harassment that I want to spend on each group is kind of how we dictate it.
00:16:58:03 – 00:17:19:07
Unknown
So for like our investors, the email sequence that they get signed up on once they’re marked as an investor, after we talk to the client, we haven’t talked to the client. Everybody comes in and gets a general kind of like a buyer nurturer, Come talk to me, schedule a consultation with a link to my calendar and things like that.
00:17:19:09 – 00:17:48:13
Unknown
And but for the rest, it’s very targeted. So for investors, we’re talking about 1031 exchanges. The DST is we’re talking about short term versus long term rentals. We’re talking about maximizing your return on your investment. We’re not talking about the granite countertops and the stainless steel appliances and the square footage. I mean, you know, I hope that if they’re investing in real estate that they understand value adding, value adding aspects of the home.
00:17:48:15 – 00:18:15:19
Unknown
But crazy. Yeah. So we’re focused on speaking their language. What what are investors interested in? They’re interested in making more money. Same with sellers. When you talk about curb appeal, we talk about cleaning services, we talk about living in storage services and these also offer open up our opportunities to create relationships within your community, which can then boost your referral network.
00:18:15:21 – 00:18:44:04
Unknown
You can even do cross marketing, and I’ve seen agents do affiliate marketing with them as well, where they’ll get a kickback as long as the relationship is disclosed to the clients ahead of time. On a person that’s like ancillary services. The Futures Commission compression occurs and if you’re not trying to make money off of solar and getting your MLS license as a mortgage broker right now and making a point five basis point on that and you’re not trying to charge up the movers to renters and everybody, every other ancillary service you’re missing the thing.
00:18:44:04 – 00:19:05:11
Unknown
But that’s a whole nother podcast question What percent of your business is coming from warm versus cold like sources? And it sounds like you’re like it sounds like you’ve created these systems and now your agents are utilizing them right? But where are you guys generating how much of it comes from like lead generation as opposed to marketing and warm?
00:19:05:13 – 00:19:35:07
Unknown
So how much is non referral and repeat business as opposed to new leads? And then I want to go into your customer service systems next. Those are great questions. I think that it’s really dependent kind of also where you are in your career. So years and years and years, about 80% of my business was referral and I’m still closing 20 plus transactions a year and 80% of my business was referral.
00:19:35:09 – 00:20:05:18
Unknown
I still have a lot of referrals coming in through and I still close generally and to be referrals per year. However, because stepping up our game with our marketing, it doesn’t equate to 80%. It’s probably closer to like 40% now, you know, So it’s it’s not that we changed anything or we had a depletion in our number of referrals.
00:20:05:18 – 00:20:38:17
Unknown
It’s more of the fact that you’re scaling now we’re growing, you’re feeding what you’re feeding. Yeah. And as a team leader, I mean, we have 14 agents at the brokerage and so typically when I get referrals, I really, really, really try to, to service them personally and to do as much as I can. I have a partner that helps me with that just so that way I can we can still be attentive and everything at the same time.
00:20:38:19 – 00:21:00:07
Unknown
But making sure and I check in with every single agent, I say, Show me your active client list, like I want to see it written down. I want you to I want to be able to point at somebody and you can tell me exactly what’s going on when the last time you talked to owners and why they’re not in contract yet and go from there.
00:21:00:09 – 00:21:21:10
Unknown
So I think when you’re building systems, you know, something to keep into mind is like I’ve tossed around the word harassment. So a lot of people just think like, okay, I’m going to get their email address, I’m just going to send them emails every couple of days until they respond to me, and then maybe they’ll work with me.
00:21:21:12 – 00:21:44:05
Unknown
I don’t know about you, but that has literally never worked. But my kid sits there and taps off at me to get me to do something. It just makes me angry and not want to do that. And I have the same reaction. So all of our sequences from the time you come into our database, the actual sequences are only seven emails long, which lasts about three and a half weeks.
00:21:44:07 – 00:22:08:21
Unknown
It’s exactly those two. Yeah. And that’s if you’re not going to talk to me after a month, no harm done. But then you’re going to move to a cadence of like every three weeks or four weeks you’ll get a single email. Yep. And I’ll stay top of mind because timing is everything in real estate. And I can’t tell you, you know, how many times it’s just right place, right time.
00:22:08:23 – 00:22:31:18
Unknown
You mention the fact that your real name 90% of the time. Exactly. This morning I have an electrician at my house right now installing a EV charger thing and sitting there talking to him. He goes, well, you know, commercial slowed. I got. And I go, well, the real estate markets on fire right now. We have no inventory. And he goes, Why move over here?
00:22:31:18 – 00:22:51:16
Unknown
And I go, That’s a gray area. Those homes are great. There’s a lot of construction going on in there. Yeah, we need to talk, is what he says next. Yeah. And it’s yeah, that’s been 10 to 1 in ten. One in 15 people are moving this year. You have to talk now. I saw like I saw this stat actually I’m doing a video, I don’t hang up with you.
00:22:51:18 – 00:23:08:17
Unknown
And 49% of the market only did one or less transactions last year. I’m like, my God. Everyone’s like, Wow, that’s pathetic. I’m like, No, that’s an opportunity. Yeah. Because like, that just shows you 50% of the agents are only doing one. Next question Becoming agents are only doing three a year, you know, And it’s just like, my God.
00:23:08:17 – 00:23:28:09
Unknown
So you really can. You can, but there isn’t a lot of yes, there’s millions of agents. But if you actually look at what the true competition is, it’s not that much. And every single time you could look at every single one of the agents that are like doing the top five or top 10%. And the one thing that they all have in common is they all have systems like the conversation we’re having right now is not French to them.
00:23:28:11 – 00:23:49:19
Unknown
They’re probably jumping in and adding in some here, here’s what I’m doing in my in my systems and why not? Okay. So lead generation systems are one thing, but that’s not the only type of system, right? We can have all kinds of systems. Let’s segment into here’s a question that no agent can ever answer for me. And here it is like it’s crazy.
00:23:49:20 – 00:24:10:13
Unknown
Like, no one can ever answer this question. And I’m like, how the hell can if you can’t answer this question, how do you have a business? And the question is, is what the fuck do you do differently than your competition? No one could ever literally ask me the question. Generally, the answer goes somewhere along the lines like this and says, Well, I’m going to, I’m going to get them the best damn deal and like I possibly can, and I’m gonna do the best job where I’m like, You have a fiduciary duty that is part of your responsibility.
00:24:10:13 – 00:24:26:00
Unknown
It’s not a value added proposition. What is it that you do that people remember that make them say, Wow, how do you wild people? So I have a couple things I’ll say, and I want to see what you do on your systems. When I first started, I knew that I had to wow people. My goal with every client wasn’t to solve the fucking house.
00:24:26:01 – 00:24:41:21
Unknown
I was the third goal. The first goal was to generate one referral from them while I’m selling the house. The second goal was to then please them, so they return to me for repeat business and turn into a walking billboard for me. And then the third goal was until we eventually sold them a house in that order. The only way I accomplished goal number one.
00:24:41:21 – 00:25:05:10
Unknown
Goal number two was through systems that I had in the business to wow them. So I’ll give you guys the example of some systems that I would have. And this is how simple a system can be when I would meet with a buyer or seller for a presentation, I would legally bribe them with a brownie gift. I would make sure the brownie would show up before I showed up to the listing or buyers presentation so that I already had something of value I gave to them every single time.
00:25:05:12 – 00:25:21:03
Unknown
The legal bribe work. That’s just a system. So the system was, Hey, you want to meet with me? Okay, great. I know it takes 24 hours for the brownie to show up at your door. I’m going to schedule my appointment face to face in 36 hours. Okay. That’s a system, You guys. Also, when I get hired, I would send out a little letter with a $10 gift card.
00:25:21:03 – 00:25:43:03
Unknown
Hey, I really look forward to working with you, So I want to get you a coffee. I appreciate the opportunity. It was just a nice touch point just to say, Hey, thanks for working with me just to show that I care. When they went under contract, they got a mortgage contingency. I would buy him a gift. The second the contingency was lifted, I would buy a $100 gift card in there, soon to be old or new neighborhood, and then I would wow them with a crazy closing gift.
00:25:43:03 – 00:26:03:10
Unknown
And not a gift card, not a bottle wine, something they had to fucking put on their on their wall. That was a billboard in their house, like a bonsai tree, like a signed autograph of a Chicago Blackhawks player that they loved. Right. Because I’m in it for the long game. So these are little systems that every client had because all I was after was not the closing for that client.
00:26:03:10 – 00:26:24:04
Unknown
I was after the next transaction. Yeah, that’s leverage. So if you don’t have systems in your customer service that while people it’s also very difficult to build a referral based business or a repeat business. So what is it? What kind of things do you advise agents to do when it comes to working with buyers or sellers? Because quite frankly, a lot of people don’t have anything in place.
00:26:24:04 – 00:26:48:18
Unknown
It’s just sort of like a there’s not really an experience at all. That’s fine. So first of all, clients are looking for one thing do what you say you’re going to do. So from the time you first make a, you know, have a conversation with them, tell them that you’re going to do something and then do it and say, as promised, here is the information.
00:26:48:18 – 00:27:15:01
Unknown
I told you that I was going to send you. As promised, Here is that report. So show that you’re trustworthy, number one, that sets you apart immediately, because most people go into a meeting with a realtor feeling very uneasy and not super willing to, you know, trust them. So create that report. No, nobody’s hunky dory about going to a meeting with a realtor.
00:27:15:03 – 00:27:40:20
Unknown
No, no. Literally no one like you. I do something similar prior to my listing appointments. I actually use Uber to deliver a package to the house and a cute little box that I had printed out. That’s way better. What do you send them? And you will see? Yeah. So she’s only name a gift like that. That gift is like so powerful.
00:27:40:20 – 00:28:09:10
Unknown
It’s not even the cost of it. It’s the fact that some physical arrives to it and it never fails. It’s the icebreaker. It’s what always leads a conversation. All right, so she’s pulling up this box if you guys are watching this on video. So what am I looking at here? It says, I’m not sure if it’s for you, but if you’re thinking about making a move, if you want to take a look at what we prepared for you, it says inside you’ll find your home equity report, our dynamic marketing, and it’s invaluable resources to help you with planning your next move.
00:28:09:12 – 00:28:31:03
Unknown
So it’s like, okay, yeah, it opens up and it shows our process on one side, it shows the home buying process on the other. And then there’s just a little note inside with the QR code, with my contact information, and it goes to a digital business card and that’s down to you and that’s buyer’s console. Yeah. Okay.
00:28:31:03 – 00:28:48:00
Unknown
So the sellers specific I mean, let me unpack this or people that just listen on audio, which she just showed me, she basically created a clumpy male buyers and sellers presentation that she sends to them ahead of time. So almost like a great pre listing package to send out. It’s not and it looks like it’s all color coded.
00:28:48:00 – 00:29:08:17
Unknown
It’s it’s pretty looking and it’s not that like people are even they probably don’t remember anything that goes on in it. What they remember is a fact. You sent them a box. Well, I throw some pens in there, I throw some branded mints in there, I throw a couple of brochures and they’re a selling brochure. I sell send, put some resources for moving and storage.
00:29:08:17 – 00:29:27:06
Unknown
And there so So when you show up, what’s the first thing they say. Yeah. You already hired. What’s the first thing they say when you show up in the boxes already sit on the table for them When you’re there, it is always sitting right there. Yeah, I figure. And they’re like, This was amazing. Like, we’ve got a chance to review this.
00:29:27:08 – 00:29:56:12
Unknown
It answered a lot of our questions. We want to show you the house, where do we sign that stuff? So, you know, one thing that any realtor listening to this, if you take away nothing else, the biggest game changer in my career with winning listings every single time was quit leaving gray areas on the table. So what I do at every single listing, when I sit down with the seller, I say, okay, this is what we’re going to do.
00:29:56:16 – 00:30:10:06
Unknown
We’re going to have it on the market by this date. And then I reverse engineering, which means that we need to have staging invited to this date, which means my stager needs to come the week prior to take a tour of the home. We’re going to set inspections that they’re going to happen either to stay or this day.
00:30:10:08 – 00:30:30:00
Unknown
Then we’re going to have the cleaning crew and they’re going to do this. If there’s any repairs that’s going to go on during these days. And so they already know that I have every single detail covered to make sure that their home is totally ready when we’re ready to hit the market. So you remind me of my friend Lawrence Shue in Chicago.
00:30:30:00 – 00:30:52:24
Unknown
You guys are like spitting images of each other like crazy. Unbelievable. It’s great. You’re right like that. And how much does that cost you? These? Yeah, You pay a couple bucks a box, so a couple of bucks a box. But it also costs are the time of ordering it kind of Uber or making sure it gets delivered and all of that.
00:30:53:01 – 00:31:19:21
Unknown
Now, I don’t know what your mindset is there for you, but I’m going to guess is that you’re bribing your your listing client to ensure the fucking listing so you’re not scared to spend the $5 or the 20 minutes it takes to order it. Are you? Yeah. No, it’s. I want to show them I’m a professional and I want to show them that I’m not just I didn’t just have my assistant print out comps before I came in and handed them to me so I can hand into them and call it a day.
00:31:19:23 – 00:31:53:22
Unknown
I’m also showing them that it’s not just a blanket presentation that I get to everybody. Yes, there’s things in there that are used for every seller and things like that, but a lot. There’s also a lot of custom materials to their individual property in there as well. Do you remember the last listing presentation you lost? No, I knew she was going to say that, but now I find that maybe I’m just one of those people.
00:31:53:22 – 00:32:32:04
Unknown
I when you’re talking to me, you can tell if I’m confused or angry or sad. I wear my heart on my sleeve. And so to me it’s eliminate all the gray areas because that’s when everybody gets all agency and distrust comes and everything like that. You had it be two steps ahead of the game. I will tell you, in my professional life, the moment that I had the realization that today today’s tasks were preparing me for tomorrow’s duties, the moment that mind shift happened, I was no longer scrambling.
00:32:32:06 – 00:33:00:13
Unknown
I was showing up prepared, ready, and, you know, able to conquer whatever came my way. What other little. Yeah. And like, you could answer the question, what’s the difference between you and me? Like, you’re demonstrating it as we speak, you guys. So, like, don’t you know how many I used to? Literally, this is before MapQuest came out when I first became real age was 22, right?
00:33:00:13 – 00:33:16:05
Unknown
We didn’t have fucking MapQuest. I literally had to learn. I would literally drive the streets because I didn’t know how to get myself around Chicago. So I would I would pre drive the streets just so I didn’t look like an idiot when I had the clients in the car with me because I had no clue where I was going.
00:33:16:07 – 00:33:31:01
Unknown
And literally I would have to print out it was called MapQuest. I dunno if you remember that, but that bus instruction, I did have to print it out and you’d go there. But then I remember one other thing I did early on was I didn’t understand numbers. So the I’m a loss in Chicago, at least at the time.
00:33:31:01 – 00:33:56:01
Unknown
I think they still have it, but they had this really cool, like simple to understand mortgage calculator that I would calculate the total monthly payment per house reflective of the taxes and the specifically for that house. And people really appreciated that because it was different per property we visited. So but it was literally because I was 22 years old, I knew I had to fucking wow them because I was like, dude, I wouldn’t buy a house for me.
00:33:56:01 – 00:34:14:23
Unknown
Like real realistically, I know what I’m doing. I want to buy Are you using me to buy a house? So I knew I had to compensate with customer service, I’d at least appear smarter than I was at the time, which is why I put together all these things ahead of time. But the preparation early on, just to show houses was like an hour down.
00:34:14:23 – 00:34:32:16
Unknown
And it turns out in my career I was like, Dude, whatever. I just showed up at shows. I already knew everything. But the point was, is that I was playing the game to prepare and prepare for the experience that the clients would have because it just and it didn’t fail. Like it’s I don’t know why this is so hard to understand for people, though.
00:34:32:16 – 00:34:48:13
Unknown
That’s probably, I think, my most frustrating part in the real estate industry. I’m sure you know, the reason why you probably don’t have 300 agents is because you can’t find the other 97 or so that will understand your process and why you’re doing it. I see that in the business all the time. Like they just don’t get it.
00:34:48:13 – 00:35:05:01
Unknown
Like, folks, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re not running this damn business as you’re not working a job, right? And nobody you might be in a good office like Reward Realty Will. They’ll have all of the systems set up for you and will allow you to go out and, you know, succeed. But that’s why four out of five agents fail.
00:35:05:03 – 00:35:47:14
Unknown
They don’t have the shit set up. They don’t have systems. You cannot build a business without systems, period. What else do you want to say about systems? Anything else? And there’s customer service systems. There’s lead generation systems. What else have we missed that you want to talk or touch on? I mean, consistency is key. I think that in marketing your business and my number one, because I track my profitability and I track my numbers and how much I’m putting in each month, each of the different avenues that we’re using for marketing every single month.
00:35:47:20 – 00:36:20:23
Unknown
My, my, I think I’m at like 37 X, but it is these plastic postcards sending send out and and who is that go to your A farm or your database and it goes actually to so sorry because I like database farming I love it’s not to my database it actually goes to non owner occupied properties within the county.
00:36:21:00 – 00:36:56:08
Unknown
Okay absentee owners like it. Yeah I send out 7500 a month and I probably get 5 to 10 listing calls each and every month from it. And it’s definitely has the highest relied of like anything else I’ve tried. But the thing I noticed about it and like the point I want to make is because I do do a lot of marketing around my listings, we send out five pieces of mail for every single buyer sale and seller sale that we transact in, letting them know, giving them updates on the status of the sale, home valuations, introduction letters, things like that.
00:36:56:10 – 00:37:26:04
Unknown
Sure. Last year going into 2024, 2023, I had 11 listing agreements signed for Q1 of that year. This year I had like two and it was because I stopped doing my classic postcard for meeting regularly. I got busy and I was seeing other areas pick up and I was exploring other avenues to bring in business as well. And I learned you were being a squirrel.
00:37:26:06 – 00:37:45:11
Unknown
I know I, know it was so silly. So like in December as I was working on my business plan and I’m pulling up the budgets and everything for this next year, really planning ahead, I knew that I had to get back on track. So it’s it’s it’s easy. It’s easy to fall off and like lose track of one day.
00:37:45:13 – 00:38:08:10
Unknown
We have to wear a lot hats in real estate. So nobody’s saying that it’s easy. Take one chunk, focus on it, complete it, and then go to the next one. The well said. Because you’re right, that happens with video a lot, you know, And when we we’d be like, I like there’s a couple of people who should I blew you guys up.
00:38:08:10 – 00:38:21:15
Unknown
I’m not going to lie. All right. But you got so complaints that I call you up by names, but you know, you are if you’re listening to show, you know, you are 12 months and then they’re black, it’s huge. Like also it’s night and day from a 12 month. But I’m not going to do video anymore. But I’m good.
00:38:21:15 – 00:38:40:00
Unknown
I’m good, I’m good. That’s what happens. It happens to me in a lot of ways. We get complacent off of a lead source that was working, but then you’re like, yeah, maybe I don’t need to do that anymore because this ego thing is real. Like it’s legit. Like you could get an ego so fast in this business and it is the number one most detrimental thing.
00:38:40:00 – 00:38:58:22
Unknown
And even the best agents, their ego will still get the best of them. Sometimes it’s like what Caroline just said. She you have to have that vulnerability with yourself and realize when you make mistakes and fucking own them like you just did. Appreciate and applaud that. It’s fantastic. But you know your numbers to see review. Yeah. With someone else, which is something that a lot of people don’t do either.
00:38:58:24 – 00:39:19:07
Unknown
Yeah. If you’re not like I said, if you’re not tracking your business and you’re your ally and your expenses and things like that, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby, you have a hobby that’s very expensive. And I really encourage you to look into something more profitable. Yeah, start collecting stamps or something. I mean, yeah, baseball cards.
00:39:19:09 – 00:39:39:17
Unknown
Okay. But I know I’m curious. People want to know your plastic postcard. Before I do, let you go. Plastic postcard. You’re sending it to absentee owners so people don’t live in a house. Do you have any other data fields that you’re filtering over? That is their missed payment and there is or high equity. What other fields is it just absentee owners?
00:39:39:17 – 00:39:59:00
Unknown
Are you layering that data on top of it? Well, I have done it with homeowners and things like that. And we’re like filters, age and, you know, life events and things like that in the past. I think it really depends on the market that you’re in and where you’re at. So right now here in the Bay Area, people have a lot of money.
00:39:59:00 – 00:40:23:00
Unknown
They’ve been sitting on not wanting to move up and not really sure if they are going to move up or and kind of slow down on the purchase of an investment properties within the Bay Area unless they’re like fix and flips. So for a lot of the calls that I have experienced the last couple of months, these are people that own four or five properties that are rental properties locally with cash.
00:40:23:02 – 00:40:50:17
Unknown
But because the taxes in California and you know, prices are as high as they are, they’re like, all right, well, let’s take our return from this. We’ve already made a lot of money reinvested out of state. And so that’s why I have a network of agents that I work with throughout the country. And so I’m always connecting with people in different major metropolitan areas with investment opportunities that I can share with my clients and and not.
00:40:50:20 – 00:41:08:10
Unknown
And that’s one of the things also that we’re doing with our investor DRIP is starting to put in investment opportunities. So we’ll go with got services that are selling their investment properties. We can send that out as a blast to, you know, this is already rented to tenants. Here’s the return here. The numbers. Are you interested in that?
00:41:08:12 – 00:41:34:23
Unknown
And it also helps her sellers as these types of properties make the decision on whether they want to go to market or whether to go sell to another investor and have a little bit more flexibility over the 1031 exchange. So definitely more options. And I think just making sure that you’re well versed in all of these different categories and identify your perfect client, like who do you want to work with?
00:41:34:23 – 00:41:51:18
Unknown
Do you want to work with 55 and older? Do you want to work with first time homebuyers? Do you want to work with investors leaning to that? Create a plan to reach that group of people. Don’t get too distracted on the sidelines by all these other people. Focus on the type of person that you want to work it at.
00:41:51:19 – 00:42:17:15
Unknown
Make your content around that type of client. Give them, you know, make your emails and everything, appeal to that type of client and you know, your vibe attracts are trying to agree to great. You want you tell everybody if you guys have any referrals for Bay Area, why don’t you tell them where they can reach you or they want to learn more about what you’re doing or follow you on social or not.
00:42:17:17 – 00:42:43:05
Unknown
Caroline Hobbs Ari on Instagram and our website is Reward Realty dot org and you can also reach me by email at Caroline at Reward Realty dot org. Thank you. Caroline. That was awesome. And thank you folks for listening. Another episode of the Real Estate Market and old podcast. Folks, if you like what you’re seeing here and you want a system to stay in front of your database so they stop forgetting who the hell you are, and more importantly, start sending either friends or family and come to you to repeat business.
00:42:43:05 – 00:43:00:10
Unknown
You need to get referral suite that’s WW dot referral suite like popsicle as wect dot com. We help you with your social media content each month. Automate your direct mail to your database and we help you with your video email content. We give you everything. I got to shoot a video and send it out. It’s very simple. Stop chasing a bunch of strangers.
00:43:00:10 – 00:43:22:23
Unknown
Start farming your relationships, nurturing them, stay in front of them and become more referral and you will start attracting business. Appreciate you guys. See you guys next week. Please. Thank you for watching. Another episode of the Real Estate Marketing Do Podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is. Visit website at WW dot real estate marketing dude dot com.
00:43:23:01 – 00:43:38:16
Unknown
We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, the site download the training and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.