February 27, 2023 • 37 mins
Today we welcome a special guest, Karin Carr, the Amazon bestselling author of, "YouTube for Real Estate Agents," and founder of the Video Boss Agent Academy. With over fifteen years of experience as a REALTOR®, Karin has become a sought-after speaker on video marketing, and she's here to share her expertise with us.
In this episode, we'll explore video as a lead-generating machine and how Karin fell into the YouTube video niche. We'll learn about the competitive advantage of using video, the difference between leads generated through video versus traditional lead generation sites, and how agents can cut through the excuses and get started with video marketing.
Karin will also share her thoughts on the key elements of creating a successful sales funnel with video, including calls to action, landing pages, lead magnets and auto-responses. We'll discuss the importance of increasing visibility and building meaningful consumer relationships, as well as the biggest mistakes agents make when incorporating video into their marketing plans.
Finally, we'll dive into Karin's popular Market Update LIVE! and discuss the value of hyper-local market update videos. If you're looking to expand your business with video, Karin's book, "YouTube for Real Estate Agents," might be a great place to start.
So sit back, relax, and join us as we decode the power of video marketing with Karin Carr.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Reggie Nicolay (00:09):
Hello and welcome to Decoding Real Estate
a podcast from Realtors PropertyResource. I'm host Reggie
Nicolay. Joined by my co host,Genie Willett. And we have a
game changing show for you todayas we explore how video
marketing can give your realestate business a huge
competitive advantage, includingcreating a sustainable lead
source.
Genie Willett (00:28):
This is everything. Buying leads from
the top sites can be crazyexpensive, and REALTORS® can
quickly get priced out. Butvideo marketing is something
anyone can start even on ashoestring budget. It's just
about consistency.
Reggie Nicolay (00:43):
And who better to walk us through than today's
special guest, Karin Carr,Amazon Best Selling Author of
YouTube for Real Estate Agents,and the founder of the Video
Boss Agent Academy. With over 15years of experience as a
REALTOR®, Karin offers a wealthof knowledge. And honestly, I
think her book should berequired reading for all new
agents.
Genie Willett (01:03):
It was so insightful, I found myself
getting ideas for our videocontent here at RPR. And I think
what our listeners will likelyappreciate most is that she
breaks down the benefits ofvideo marketing. So clearly,
which actually reminded me ofwhen we go to conventions and
run into members that have beenlistening to Decoding Real
Estate or the wow factor, theyoften come up to us with such
(01:25):
excitement and they're so eagerto meet us, you can really
create a personal connectionwith people through video.
Reggie Nicolay (01:31):
That's always such an awesome feeling. Now
imagine you're the REALTOR®,you're creating that video
content. Now your prospects areexcited to see you and they run
into you. I mean, honestly, it'sone of the superpowers that come
along with video marketing.
Let's not wait any longer. Joinus now for our interview with
Karin Carr.
Karin! We're so thrilled to haveyou on the show today. I can't
(01:59):
wait to get into ourconversation and I can't think
of a better place to start thanhow you first began creating
real estate videos.
Karin Carr (02:08):
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's kind of
funny, it was it was reallyaccidental. I had moved several
times I got licensed in NorthernCalifornia, we moved across the
country to be closer to myfamily. But then my husband got
transferred a year after we gotthere. And then two years later,
he got transferred again. So wewent from California to South
(02:28):
Carolina to Atlanta to Savannah,in four or five years, that was
kind of crazy. And as you know,every time you start over in a
new market, you may as well benewly licensed again. It's
literally like, you know, thefirst time I wrote an offer,
when I got to Savannah, I had totell the listing agent, like
don't go look me up in theGeorgia Real Estate Commission
(02:50):
website, because you're gonnathink that I just got licensed
last Tuesday, really, I've beenI've been licensed for over 10
years. At this point, I knowwhat I'm doing, I promise, I'm
not a newbie, and it's not goingto be a terrible transaction for
you. But they don't know thatthey have no idea that you know,
you sold tons of houses in yourprevious market, they just don't
know. So I had no businesscoming in. I had nobody to work
(03:11):
with. And I figured, well, I'vegot lots of time. What if I
started making YouTube videos? Imean, what else have I got to
do? And at worst, it'll just be,you know, something to do with
my time. But what if it couldactually be kind of effective?
Why not? So I started makingYouTube videos, very
sporadically. I had no contentcalendar, I had no strategy I
(03:37):
didn't. I didn't have anyspecific upload schedule. And I
would just do it when I hadnothing better to do. And then
one day, I got a phone callwhere the guy said, Oh my gosh,
I can't believe you answered thephone. I feel like I'm talking
to a celebrity. I feel like Iknow you already. I've watched
all of your videos. We're goingto sell our house in New York,
were moving to Georgia, we wantyou to help us. And at that
(03:57):
moment, it was kind of like oh,you know, the heavens parted and
the angels began to sing. And itwas this huge aha moment. When
he said, I feel like I know youalready. So unfortunately, he
was moving to Atlanta and I hadjust moved to Savannah. So I had
to refer him out to someone elsebecause I moved five hours away
literally the week before, butnow I knew that it actually was
(04:19):
going to work. So I said, Okay,I'm in a new market yet again,
nothing to do. I will make onevideo a week, I'm going to
commit to six months, I willhave zero expectations. I'm not
even going to consider stoppinguntil the six month mark just so
that I can have some actual datato you know, make an informed
decision. Well, by six months, Iwas getting almost all of my
(04:41):
business from my YouTubechannel. It was kind of insane.
And after a year, I went to mybroker and said, I am so
insanely busy. I I don't evenknow what to do at this point. I
need help. What should I do? Andshe said I think it's time to
form a team. So it boggles mymind that one year after
relocating to a brand new citywhere I knew two people that
(05:02):
lived there, my mom and dad, andthey were not going to be
selling their house anytime soonthat I went from that to having
to expand because I had so manyinbound leads coming in that I
couldn't service them allmyself. And $0 of that came from
ad spend.
Genie Willett (05:18):
That's amazing.
You briefly touched on this, butcan you walk us through the
difference between leads thatyou buy on third party sites
versus leads that come inthrough your video content?
Karin Carr (05:28):
Oh, my gosh, I love that question so much. Because
back before I discoveredYouTube, I was running a ton of
Facebook ads. So I would runthese ads. And I would spend
anywhere from like $500 to$1,000 a month. And at the time,
that felt like a lot of money tome. And I would run these ads of
like, hey, get a free list ofall of the single storey homes
in Canton, Georgia. And I wouldget these people who would opt
(05:50):
in for the list. And boy, Icould not convert those people
into clients to save my life.
Now part of that was probably mypoor sales skills. But a lot of
it was that they couldn't theywere not ready, willing and
able, they were not creditworthy. They didn't have good
FICO scores, or they were just,you know, oh, that house looked
pretty. So I clicked on the ad,but they really didn't have any
motivation. So I felt like I wasjust flushing money down the
(06:13):
toilet. I was getting all ofthese people into my database,
who would not answer any of myemails, who gave me fake phone
numbers who did not want to talkto me. And they would never
convert, like, I could nurturethem for five years, but they
would never convert into aclient. But when I get the call
from someone that says, Oh, mygosh, I watched your YouTube
videos, they have already chosenyou. They don't even interview
(06:37):
any other agent most of thetime. In fact, the first good
solid lead I got after I movedto Savannah, it was a seller
lead. He had gone to my websiteand he filled out the How much
is your home worth page on mywebsite? So I called him and
said, Hey, I got this, this formyou thinking about selling your
house? And he said, Yes, I foundyour YouTube channel. I've
(06:57):
watched all of your videos wentto your form, your website
filled out the form. We'rethinking of selling our house
and moving back to Florida, allof our family is in Florida.
We're the only ones here inGeorgia, I think it's time we're
going to do. So I went over tohis house and I did my whole
song and dance. Right? I gave mywhole listing presentation. And
you know, I'm doing it on myiPad so I can show how tech
savvy I am. And you know,beautiful graphics and all of
(07:20):
the things and at the end, Isaid, Okay, so, you know, break
into me gently, who else am I upagainst? Who else are you
interviewing? And they said,Nobody, like we picked you. And
at that you could have heard apin drop because I was so
flabbergasted at that point, Imust have been in real real
estate. 12 years, maybe I'venever had that happen before. I
(07:43):
had literally never had a comelist me phone call. Unless it
was, you know, my sister's nextdoor neighbor. And it was a done
deal. I never had somebody justpick me off of the internet and
say, I want you to be the personespecially when we had not ever
met before we'd never met inperson we'd never spoken by
phone until he filled out thatform. And it was just the follow
(08:04):
up phone call. So then the nextphone call was like that, too.
It was another seller come listme. He was in the military. They
were PCSing to Fort Eustis. Wegot to sell our house fast. I
want to buy a house when I getthere. But I can't have two
mortgage payments. And you aremilitary. And so you get it and
you know, we want you. I saidWho else are you interviewing?
He said, Well, we've got threedifferent people that we are
(08:28):
interviewing. And I said, Okay,understood, like, I'm not going
to force you to make a decision.
I shook their hands, I got mycar, I was not even out of the
neighborhood. And he called meback and said, Oh, who are we
kidding? Can you just come backand we'll sign paperwork now.
And I laughed so hard when I gotthere. He's like, I felt like we
really should interview threedifferent people. But we don't
want to, we just want to pickyou. And that's the power of
(08:50):
video. Because when you are oncamera, and they see you and
they hear you, they are gettingto know your personality. If
they don't like you, they arenot going to call. But that's
fine. There's no rejection. It'snot as though they call you and
say, you know, Karin, I wasgoing to hire you to list my
house. But in the end, I justreally don't like you that much.
(09:11):
So I'm not going to like theydon't do that doesn't ever
happen. So if they don't callyou don't know that they didn't
call, there's no rejection. Allyou get are the calls where
they're like, oh my gosh, youwere amazing. I love you. It's a
great ego boost. Let me tellyou, when every person that
calls you feels like I'm doingthem this huge favor by agreeing
to take their business.
Reggie Nicolay (09:33):
What's incredible about that story is
you know, your videos areessentially nurturing these,
these prospects and you'vegained this celebrity status in
their eyes in a way where we allfeel like when we see somebody
that we've watched for a whileand and I know that feeling and
it's it's amazing. You'reactually just looking to talk
with them and connect and thenmaybe if you have an opening in
(09:54):
your schedule, you couldrepresent us, you know, what you
may know that's
Karin Carr (09:57):
Exactly how I've had people say like I'm not I don't
have a huge budget. I know, Iknow my sales not going to be
huge. But would you please takeme on as a client anyway, they
act as though, like me agreeingto give them these morsels of my
busy time is just the mostprecious thing in the world to
them. They never, they neverargue about commission, they're
(10:19):
not looking for somebody who'sjust gonna give them a rebate at
the closing, like that is nottheir primary concern. Their
primary concern is that I likeyou, I trust you, I feel safe, I
feel that you are competentenough to help me with this
transaction, and that we'regoing to have a good time doing
it. And that hopefully, I willbe able to make it a fun
transaction and not the moststressful thing that they've
(10:42):
ever gone through.
Reggie Nicolay (10:43):
You've done such a good job of painting, the
value of video marketing andyour real estate business. But
you know, there's some folksthat are sitting there on the
sidelines, they're peeking in,and they've got excuses. They
don't have enough time, or theyneed to get a haircut or they
need to, you know, buy some newtechnology because maybe their
cameras not the right one. Imean, what's what's your take on
(11:05):
that? when's the right time toget in? And, you know, any
advice for someone just tryingto get the first video created?
Karin Carr (11:12):
Right? The best time was 20 years ago, the second
best time is right now. So it'sthat old analogy of when's the
best time to plant a tree right?
20 years ago would have been thebest time to plant the tree. But
if you didn't think ahead to dothat, then today is the best
time. Listen, you're gonna stinkat the beginning, there is no
getting around it. I am, I havea friend who is big into Tik
Tok, she's trying to talk meinto doing Tik Tok videos, I am
(11:34):
terrified to post a Tik Tokvideo because that is not in my
wheelhouse at all. And I hearthat people are really mean on
Tik Tok, and they tear you apartin the comments. So me, who's
somebody who has filmed like 500videos in the past couple of
years, even I am nervous aboutdoing that. There is no way to
get over it, except to do it anddo it over and over and over
(11:57):
again until it's not scaryanymore. So you just have to
decide how important is this toyou? I will tell you that video
marketing is free. And it is thesingle most effective lead
generation strategy that I haveever tried in the 17 years that
I've been a licensed REALTOR®.
And it doesn't cost me anymoney. So does that sound
(12:20):
appealing to you? If so you haveto decide that it's worth being
uncomfortable. And it's worthtrying something that's scary,
because you will not die ofembarrassment. You will not die
of mortification and you willnot die if somebody I had
somebody in the comments on aYouTube video recently tell me
that I looked like the femaleversion of Eric Idle out which,
(12:42):
oh my god. And then I looked atthe video, I'm like, dang it,
they're kind of right. There waspicturing the old Monty Python
skits where he's dressed up likean old woman. And I'm like,
Well, I do have a long face. AndI'm pale. And I now have gray
hair. So I kind of see it. Andoriginally when I made videos,
if they had said something likethat, that totally would have
hurt my feelings so bad, itwould have been like, dang,
(13:05):
okay, where's the line, I'mgonna have to go console myself
with a big glass of red wine.
But now, after so many peopletelling me that they love my
videos, that the few people whosay they don't, I don't care,
it's fine. You know, I'm over.
Now you can have your opinion,you're wrong, clearly. But if
that's your opinion, that'sfine. Just don't watch me go
watch somebody else. So you haveto decide that it's worth it,
(13:28):
and then decide that yeah, it'sgoing to be very uncomfortable.
And I'm going to feel supervulnerable and awkward. And the
good news is it doesn't lastforever, because the more you do
it, the better you get. And thetechnology totally does not
matter. When I started Irecorded everything on my
iPhone, I think I had a six plusat the time, or my iPad, and
(13:51):
only because the screen waslarger. So if I had notes, I
could actually read the notesfrom six feet away without
having to put my glasses on. Souse your iPhone, your Samsung
Android, whatever you got, it'sgoing to be just fine. I would
say get a microphone doesn'thave to be a big fancy
microphone, it could be a $30microphone off of Amazon. If
(14:12):
you're going to record into yourcomputer with your webcam, you
just get one that plugs rightinto your computer with a USB
port. If you're going to recordwith your phone, you get one
that plugs into the iPhones jackor the headphone jack or
Bluetooth earbuds. It reallyreally helps to have an external
microphone with the camera likeall of the cameras are good now
(14:32):
they all shoot in 10 ADP, youdon't need 4k In fact, I would
say if you're you know my ageand older don't go with 4k
nobody see that that close 1080P will be just fine. And then
that's pretty much it. You'regoing to just talk to the camera
as though you were speaking toone person pick like your
(14:53):
neighbor down the street whosaid hey, can I pick your brain?
Let's go to Starbucks. I'mthinking about buying an
investment property. I've noidea what the heck I'm doing.
Do I really have to put 30%?
Down? Like, could I just takeyou out for coffee and ask you a
whole bunch of questions. Soyou're talking to that one
person who you know, and youknow very well, it's not going
to be scary to have thatconversation with them, like,
you know, this person andthey're not, they're not
(15:13):
grilling you to try to see ifyou're, they're going to trick
you with answers so that you getthem wrong, like they genuinely
want your help. There's nothingscary about that. Train yourself
to think of the camera as thatone person who just needs your
help. It's not, it's notanything to be scared of. And
then when you start uploadingthese videos, no one is going to
watch them, like you, if youhave a brand new YouTube
(15:38):
channel, no one's gonna seethem, they don't know that your
channel even exists yet. Andthat's fine, because this is
when you are learning. So Idon't really want a huge
audience watching me crash andburn. It is perfectly fine that
when I put these videos up,they're gonna get 10 views, 20
views, like on a good day,you're oh my gosh, I got 50
(15:58):
views on this video whathappened? I don't know what
happened. But you know, and theneventually, you get better and
better and better. And by thattime, the YouTube algorithm is
like, Okay, now people arestarting to like these videos,
they start to show them to morepotential viewers. By the time
your videos start to get found,you're 100 times better than you
were when you first started. Buttruly, the only way to get over
(16:21):
that initial hurdle, is to justdo it to just make yourself do
it and Promise yourself that itdoes not have to be anywhere
close to perfect. Like I heardMarie Forleo say once B- work,
it doesn't have to be an A plusa B- is just fine. Just get it
up there. It's good enough, goodenough to help somebody and then
(16:42):
move on and go make the nextone. And the faster you can do
that. So make 5, 10, 20 videos,the faster you can just get the
all those videos cranked out andput on your YouTube channel, the
sooner you will get over thatinitial hurdle. So now when I
sit down to edit videos, like Ido not care what my voice sounds
like, I don't even give it asecond thought. That's that's
(17:05):
what my voice sounds like. Itdoesn't bother me anymore. I
don't agonize over except I youknow, I did record a video the
other day and I had somethingstuck in my teeth and I didn't
know it until I sat down to Editwas like are you kidding me? It
looks like I had black beans forlunch. This was not cool. But
you it was not live. I get toedit the video so I can edit
(17:25):
that part out where nobody willsee it or I could just rerecord
it again, it will be totallyfine.
Genie Willett (17:33):
Okay, so now you've created your videos
consistently. You've got them onYouTube, and you're slowly
building a base of followers.
How do you turn this into asuccessful sales funnel? How do
you actually convert viewersinto clients?
Karin Carr (17:47):
I love that you said sales funnel, makes my little
nerdy marketers heartbeatfaster. It really is a funnel.
So here's the problem that Isee. Most real estate agents
think that it is commercial timewhen they make a video for
YouTube. It's like, "Hello, didI mention that I am a CRS and a
GRI and I have so manydesignations and I sell so many
(18:07):
houses. And I am really awesome.
But enough about me. What do youthink about me?" Like that's
what most people do on theirYouTube channels. And I don't
understand it, because I don'tenjoy watching commercials. In
fact, when I go to YouTube and acommercial starts to play, I
wait 5 4 3 2 1 And then I hitthe skip button so I don't have
to watch it. And that's not whyI'm there. Like I did not go to
(18:29):
YouTube and say, Gee, I wouldreally like to watch a whole
bunch of sales pitches. Nowthat's going to be a good time.
Like nobody wants that. But forsome reason. That's what
salespeople are real estateagents seem to think they think
that it is I've got toadvertise. I've got to promote
myself. Yes, but we can do it ina way that is not quite so
obnoxious. So instead, I thinkabout who am I trying to reach
(18:52):
with this video, when I createdmy channel, it was people who
are in the military who arecoming to Savannah to be
stationed at Hunter ArmyAirfield. So they are military.
They are moving here from out ofthe area. They don't know the
Savannah area very well at all.
And hopefully they're going tobe buyers. Maybe they've decided
I've been living on post all ofthis time. But now that I'm
(19:14):
getting to Savannah, it's reallyinexpensive to live there. We
could actually buy a house. Andone of my very first clients was
in the Coast Guard. He boughtnew construction for $192,000.
The guy thought he had just likewon the jackpot, right? $192,000
I forget what his mortgagepayment was going to be. It was
ridiculous. It was like $1,500 amonth. And I think his base
allowance for housing was morethan that. So basically, he was
(19:37):
getting to live in this housefor free every single month and
not have to pay for it. Sothat's who I was targeting with
my channel. Every video that Imake has to speak directly to
that person. So what wouldsomeone in the military who is
moving to Savannah need to knowI can talk about VA loans I can
talk about the funding fee I cantalk about what the seller can
pay for and what the buyer isnot allowed to pay for If I can
(20:00):
talk about the Can I buy a fixerupper? Can I buy an investment
property? Then I can talk about?
What's it like living inSavannah, I can talk about the
pros and cons of living inSavannah, I can talk about
things to do here and why it'ssuch a fun place and places you
can go on vacation that arewithin a two hour drive from
Savannah, I can talk aboutbuying and neighborhoods and
like anything. And the thingthat's really funny, this, I
(20:24):
totally just went off on atangent, but that very first
lead that I got was a seller whowas not in the military. The
second lead I got was also aseller he was in the military.
But the first two leads I gotwere not the people that I was
targeting with the channel. Andit didn't matter because the
more views those videos got, themore YouTube pushed it out to
other people as well. So I stillgot seller leads even though I
(20:47):
was making videos for buyers.
But I digress. So then I'mmaking these videos talking
specifically to that person. Andmy personal philosophy is just
the Gary Vee Jab, Jab, Jab,Right Hook, you gotta give,
give, give, give, give, givesome more, and then ask. So I
make the video, giving them allkinds of great information,
(21:11):
expecting absolutely nothing inreturn. And maybe every third
fourth fifth video, I would saysomething like, if you're
thinking about moving toSavannah, I have an awesome
relocation guide, click the linkbelow, go over to my website and
download it. And that sends theminto the funnel. So they go to
my website, they fill out thelanding page to get the
(21:31):
relocation guide, they get itdelivered to them, immediately
they go into my CRM, it starts awhole follow up nurture
campaign, I get an email thatsays Ding, ding, ding, you have
a new lead. And then I call themand say, Hey, Joe, I saw that
you downloaded my relocationguide. Are you thinking about
moving to Savannah, and thenthey have the oh my gosh, I
can't believe I'm talking to youa conversation. So it really
(21:52):
turns into not only leads, butreally, really good, qualified,
motivated leads. Sometimesthey're not ready to move for a
year or two, like I've had lotsof people say, I think we're
going to relocate there when weretire. And that's not for a
couple of years. But and then Ihave other people that are like,
I'm going to be there nextmonth. So we're doing something
(22:13):
right now. and everywhere inbetween. So they really turn
into amazing leads, but not ifyou're saying call me call me
Call me. Here's my phone number.
I'm gonna have my phone numberflashing on the screen. And
here's my logo, my brokeragelogo as well. Did I mention you
should call me oh, by the way, Ihave a house for sale that I
mentioned that I sell houses, Ihave houses for sale, let's
let's give you I'm selling thishouse, anybody want to buy this
(22:34):
house? And when I go on social,that's all I see. It's about the
listing, the listing the listingthe listing all of the time,
what if we stopped and weactually gave them some
information that they wanted.
And they didn't feel like wewere just trying to sell them
something all of the time, Ifeel like it, it makes them let
(22:56):
their guard down and lets theirwalls down. And they actually
become more receptive to whatyou are saying. So they don't
feel like you're a salesperson.
And then when they decide it'stime to pull the trigger. They
call you because you've shownyourself to be trustworthy and
not obnoxious.
Reggie Nicolay (23:13):
It's such good advice, you know, because,
again, education and you'reshowing your value you're giving
to get it makes a lot of sense.
I think the only thing as a newagent where I'm looking at this,
I might be a little fearful thatwhen I open up YouTube, I'm
competing with all of YouTube,and I really loved hearing your
take on it that you know, that'snot the case. When you start
looking at you know who you'retalking to your niche and your
(23:36):
local area. You're not actuallycompeting with as many people as
you think are you out there?
Karin Carr (23:43):
No, not at all. It's really interesting how the
YouTube algorithm works becausethey show you videos if I am the
viewer, they are showing mevideos that they think I will
like based on my previous watchhistory. And so I give this
analogy all the time. There is aguy that has a channel in
southern Utah he he's a towtruck guy, he pulls Jeeps out
(24:06):
when they go out to Moab to gorock hauling and they get stuck
in the cracks. He goes out hepulls the Jeep out my husband
watches this channel everysingle night and I'm like how
how many Jeeps do you need towatch get towed out of the
cracks before it's no longerentertaining because you watch
it literally every single nightwhen I go on to YouTube I will
never be serviced one of Mattoff roads recoveries video
(24:30):
because I don't watch that. Iwill be shown videos that I
watch I watched chicken or watchvideos about chickens raising
chickens in your backyard. Andyou know stop coloring your
hair, let your hair grow grayand how to deal with humidity
and better editing techniquesand you know social media
marketing and what is the whatare the interest rates doing
(24:52):
like it shows me videos that arerelevant to what I have searched
and what I have watched in theYouTube newsfeed based on my
previous watch history, so theonly people who will ever watch
your YouTube videos are peoplewho are interested in the topic.
And this is one of my favoritethings about YouTube. It's
(25:13):
really mind blowing when youthink about it. If you get 50
views on a video that was about,I don't know, the savannah
quarters gated neighborhood inpooler, Georgia, I get 50 views,
okay? 50 views is not a lot. Butall 50 views were from people
that were interested in Savannahquarters in polar Georgia. So
(25:34):
even if I got one phone callfrom that, that turned into a
client at a 50 views, those arenot bad off no right. Versus I'm
not I'm not competing witheverybody on YouTube, I am not
competing with Mr. Beast, I amnot competing with PewDiePie.
I'm not competing with the theguys that like run around
mansions shooting each otherwith Nerf guns that my 10 year
(25:55):
old son watches all the time.
I'm not up against thoseviewers. That's not what they're
looking for. They will never beshown one of my videos. But if
somebody types in anything to dowith Savannah or real estate,
you can be darn sure they'regonna see my videos.
Genie Willett (26:10):
You mentioned a few already. But let's circle
back to the top mistakes you seeagents making when incorporating
video into their marketingplans.
Karin Carr (26:19):
Well, one of the big mistakes we've already talked
about, and that was being waytoo salesy, so just don't don't
anything that you've been taughtto do, do the polar opposite on
YouTube. And it will probably bemore effective. It truly is. If
if you sound like you're comingacross with a sales pitch, they
will leave the video within thefirst 10 seconds and never watch
(26:40):
you again. So you're justdestroying any chances you had
of working with that person. Sodon't. The second thing is
pretty much along those samelines. And it is. Hey, everyone,
welcome back to my channel. Myname is Karin Carr. I'm a real,
I'm a real estate agent inSavannah, Georgia with real
broker and then today we'retalking about that. So I told
them that I was a REALTOR® andwho my brokerage was in the
(27:01):
first 10 seconds of the video, Iam convinced that what they hear
is, Hello, I am an annoyingsalesperson. And I'm now going
to give you a sales pitch forthe next 15 minutes, buckle up,
it's going to be fun. And theydon't want that so they leave
the video. So if we can stopdoing that, and instead start
the video with some sort ofcompelling hook something that
(27:24):
will grab them and keep themwanting to know more. So let's
say that your video was about isis it? Is it still a hot
seller's market? Or is it toolate because now the interest
rates have changed. And soyou're going to make a video
where you're talking aboutwhat's happening in your market.
(27:44):
And you could open your videoinstead of saying, Hey,
everyone, welcome to my channel.
I'm Karin, I'm a REALTOR®. Youcould say something like, are
you thinking about selling yourhouse in Savannah, and you are
worried because interest ratesare sky high? Yep, you should be
worried because things havechanged drastically, you need to
know what to do if you want toget your house sold in less than
six months. Let's do this. Andthen you talk about your things.
(28:05):
So you had to give themsomething that was like a little
bit controversial, a little bitsalacious, a little bit of like
scare tactics, because we knowthat people's are motivated by
going toward pleasure and awayfrom fear. And unfortunately,
the fear thing seems to work alittle bit better on YouTube. So
you say something scary at thebeginning of the video, they're
(28:27):
gonna click on it and watch it,then you give them the
information. So we don't want totrick them into clicking and
then talk about somethingtotally unrelated. We're going
to talk about exactly what wesaid in the beginning of the
video, so that they feel likeyou're giving them the accurate
information. And hopefully youare reassuring them that no, you
didn't wait too long. It's not aterrible time. But we do have to
(28:49):
do things differently, you'reprobably not going to get 75
offers in the first 48 hourslike we did last summer, things
are different. Here's what weneed to do to adjust, blah,
blah, blah. So you're justreally trying to be entertaining
on camera. And that is a skillthat comes with practice, we do
not come out of the womb, beinggreat at coming up with an
(29:12):
opening hook. Like it doesn'thappen that way it comes with
practice. And the more you doit, the better you will get and
you don't even it's it's noteven that you're coming up with
it off the top of your head,like I literally will make a
list of opening hooks. And I'llwrite down 15 of them. And then
I'll pick the one that I thinksounds the best and then that's
(29:32):
the one that I say in the video.
You don't have to come up withit off the top of your head.
You're like planning what you'regoing to say in this video.
Don't feel like it has to beperfect. They want you to be
real on camera. If you swallowor you cough or you stumble over
your lines, it's fine. You cankeep going you could take it out
(29:53):
if you wanted to in the editingprocess, but you could keep
going as well. Just don't Ah,you know, when you're doing a
live stream, people are comingon and you're like, hey, Carol,
hey, Joe, how's it going, you'rechit chatting with people that
are in the live stream. Unlessyou're going live. That's really
annoying. So don't use a freedon't use a live stream that you
(30:16):
did before. And like upload itto YouTube, because now I'm
watching it back, I'm not live.
And it's very easy to lose theirattention. I don't I don't need
to see all of the chitchat, justget to the point, please. And
then always have a really greatcall to action at the end of
your video. And for me, I likeit to be watched another video.
So I've just given you all ofthis information about why this
(30:37):
is still a great time to sellyour house. But do you know how
to come up with the list price?
Or are you just pulling that offof Zillow? No, this is how we
determine what your list priceshould be. Watch this video
next. And in that video, we'regoing to tell them how we come
up with the asking price foryour house. So you're giving
them like valuable piece of infoafter valuable piece of info
(31:00):
after valuable piece of info.
And then you say I want to knowwhat your home is worth go to my
website and fill out this form,I'll tell you exactly what it's
worth. So they feel like oh,this person was so helpful.
They're giving me all of thisgreat information. They're not
trying to shove anything down mythroat that I'm not ready to
buy. And then eventually theycall you. And when you ask them.
(31:22):
Did you call anybody else? Areyou interviewing anybody else?
They say no, just you.
Reggie Nicolay (31:29):
It's a dream.
Karin Carr (31:30):
It is really?
Reggie Nicolay (31:31):
Yeah, it is. I love this. And you mentioned a
type of video that I did want tocircle around a little bit live
video. And you also mentionedmarket updates in your last
answer. And so this is the nextquestion I because that RPR we
have introduced these new chartsand graphs. And as marketers
ourselves, Jeannie and I, we'vebeen thinking well, these are
bound foundational marketingcomponents for video, you know,
(31:54):
they talk about the type ofmarket or different roll ups for
neighborhoods maybe on like themedian list price or days on
market or change in volume, youknow, something like that. And
so we're just wondering, like,what's your take on real estate
market videos? I did see you hada live video with a group of
your teammates. I thought it wasa really fun format. There was
(32:16):
different context coming fromeverybody, you know, their ache,
but I mean, what's your overallthought on market update videos,
and I'm using data like Imentioned,
Karin Carr (32:26):
Let me start by saying if you know the DISC
profile, I am a high AI. Somarket updates to me are mind
numbingly boring, I do not lovedoing them. And I put them off
for a very, very long time.
Unfortunately, sellers lovemarket updates. But you got to
figure out how to make itinteresting. They don't
necessarily know all of thejargon and the acronyms that
(32:47):
we're using on a daily basis.
And I see a lot of people thatwill make a market update. And
they're saying, you know howmany houses sold, how many went
pending? How many are active onthe market, but they don't say
what that was compared to themonth before. So is that good?
Is that bad? I don't know, Idon't really have any context. I
(33:09):
don't know what the marketabsorption rate is as the
consumer. So if you're gonnagive them the data, I like to
give it to them. So that I'mtelling them why it's relevant
for them. So if I say, you know,last summer, the days on market
was 17 days, like literally, wewould put the house on the
market, we got a million offerson it went under contract, and
(33:30):
then it closed in no time. Nowour days on market is 60 days,
that is a huge difference. Whatdoes that mean for you? Well, if
you are the buyer, it means thisif you are the seller, it means
this. So I love to give themthat data. And if we've got all
of those charts and graphs fromRPR that we can put up on the
screen, give the peoplesomething to look at while
(33:51):
you're explaining what it is.
That's wonderful because theydon't just want to look at my
face talking for 15 minutesstraight and give them some
diagrams and charts and piecharts and all of that stuff to
look at that makes your videomuch more entertaining, and
watchable. They like that. But Ialso say just don't go too crazy
with like the stats, becauseyou're going to lose all of the
(34:13):
people that are like me that arethe highest, you know, we want
to like, talk about the feelingand the emotions and stuff like
that. And if you go deep downthe rabbit hole of the stats,
you're going to lose me so Itried to just think of a happy
medium, how can I appeal to asmany people as possible with the
information that I'm givingthem, but I love that idea of
(34:33):
just you don't have to go to theMLS and pull all of these this
data, just go to RPR and usetheirs instead. And by the way,
they're going to look 10 timesbetter than anything I could
make on Canva. So I'll just usethat instead. And then as far as
live streams live streams aregreat if you already have a
fairly large audience. If youdon't, I feel like it's not
(34:56):
really beneficial. At the verybeginning, so let's say I create
my new YouTube channel. It'sbrand new. I have five
subscribers. And it's mostlylike my mom and my husband and
my cousin that lives in anotherstate. And a few people from the
office, I don't have a hugefollowing. If I go live, no
one's really going to see itexcept the five people that were
(35:18):
already subscribed to thechannel, and even then they're
not all going to watch it. Soyou're going live. And you can
see a big fat zero in the upperleft hand corner. And it's
really demoralizing for me to belive and be like, nobody is
watching. This is soembarrassing, and then it's hard
to keep your energy up and actlike you're talking to people
(35:40):
when you know that nobody isthere. So once you get a fairly
large YouTube channel, then it'sa great time to start live
streaming, but I wouldn't do it.
If your channel is brand new. Iwould go live on the other
channels, the other platformswhere you already have a fairly
good audience. I hear that goinglive on Tik Tok is going to be
(36:00):
like the next big thing becausenot many people are doing it
yet. So if you're already on TikTok, go live over there. Go Live
on Facebook Live on Instagram. Iwouldn't worry too much about
YouTube Live though until youhave a larger audience. That's
just my personal take on it. Itadvice.
Genie Willett (36:16):
This has all been so great. I know I already want
to dig deeper into making videocontent. For those agents
looking for some more guidanceon expanding their business with
video. Should they start withyour book YouTube for real
estate agents?
Karin Carr (36:29):
Yes, that would be wonderful. Please do it is on
Amazon or it is in the theNational Association of
REALTORS® store in thebookshelf. It's called YouTube
for real estate agents learn howto get free real estate leads
and never cold call again. Youcan follow me on my YouTube
channel. It'syoutube.com/karincarr. And it's
(36:50):
all just tips for agents thatwant to use video this way. Feel
free to watch as many of thoseas you need. I do challenges
periodically online i i have acoaching program like I love to
talk about this stuff. So if youneed more help just I'd say
start with my YouTube channel.
That's probably the easiestplace to start.
Reggie Nicolay (37:12):
Yeah, there is a wealth of information on that
channel. I could have a lot offun digging through all that
content. And I loved about thebook all the assignments and the
way you took it. It's reallyit's like the ABCs to getting
started. So very helpful. Foranyone looking to get some
traction with video. We can'tthank you enough for being our
guest on Decoding Real Estatethis month and we hope to have
(37:34):
more conversations with you inthe future. But for now, thank
you for giving our listenerstips on how to get started with
video in their marketing.
Karin Carr (37:43):
My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. This
is great.
Hello and welcome to Decoding Real Estate
a podcast from Realtors PropertyResource. I'm host Reggie
Nicolay. Joined by my co host,Genie Willett. And we have a
game changing show for you todayas we explore how video
marketing can give your realestate business a huge
competitive advantage, includingcreating a sustainable lead
source.
Genie Willett (00:28):
This is everything. Buying leads from
the top sites can be crazyexpensive, and REALTORS® can
quickly get priced out. Butvideo marketing is something
anyone can start even on ashoestring budget. It's just
about consistency.
Reggie Nicolay (00:43):
And who better to walk us through than today's
special guest, Karin Carr,Amazon Best Selling Author of
YouTube for Real Estate Agents,and the founder of the Video
Boss Agent Academy. With over 15years of experience as a
REALTOR®, Karin offers a wealthof knowledge. And honestly, I
think her book should berequired reading for all new
agents.
Genie Willett (01:03):
It was so insightful, I found myself
getting ideas for our videocontent here at RPR. And I think
what our listeners will likelyappreciate most is that she
breaks down the benefits ofvideo marketing. So clearly,
which actually reminded me ofwhen we go to conventions and
run into members that have beenlistening to Decoding Real
Estate or the wow factor, theyoften come up to us with such
(01:25):
excitement and they're so eagerto meet us, you can really
create a personal connectionwith people through video.
Reggie Nicolay (01:31):
That's always such an awesome feeling. Now
imagine you're the REALTOR®,you're creating that video
content. Now your prospects areexcited to see you and they run
into you. I mean, honestly, it'sone of the superpowers that come
along with video marketing.
Let's not wait any longer. Joinus now for our interview with
Karin Carr.
Karin! We're so thrilled to haveyou on the show today. I can't
(01:59):
wait to get into ourconversation and I can't think
of a better place to start thanhow you first began creating
real estate videos.
Karin Carr (02:08):
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's kind of
funny, it was it was reallyaccidental. I had moved several
times I got licensed in NorthernCalifornia, we moved across the
country to be closer to myfamily. But then my husband got
transferred a year after we gotthere. And then two years later,
he got transferred again. So wewent from California to South
(02:28):
Carolina to Atlanta to Savannah,in four or five years, that was
kind of crazy. And as you know,every time you start over in a
new market, you may as well benewly licensed again. It's
literally like, you know, thefirst time I wrote an offer,
when I got to Savannah, I had totell the listing agent, like
don't go look me up in theGeorgia Real Estate Commission
(02:50):
website, because you're gonnathink that I just got licensed
last Tuesday, really, I've beenI've been licensed for over 10
years. At this point, I knowwhat I'm doing, I promise, I'm
not a newbie, and it's not goingto be a terrible transaction for
you. But they don't know thatthey have no idea that you know,
you sold tons of houses in yourprevious market, they just don't
know. So I had no businesscoming in. I had nobody to work
(03:11):
with. And I figured, well, I'vegot lots of time. What if I
started making YouTube videos? Imean, what else have I got to
do? And at worst, it'll just be,you know, something to do with
my time. But what if it couldactually be kind of effective?
Why not? So I started makingYouTube videos, very
sporadically. I had no contentcalendar, I had no strategy I
(03:37):
didn't. I didn't have anyspecific upload schedule. And I
would just do it when I hadnothing better to do. And then
one day, I got a phone callwhere the guy said, Oh my gosh,
I can't believe you answered thephone. I feel like I'm talking
to a celebrity. I feel like Iknow you already. I've watched
all of your videos. We're goingto sell our house in New York,
were moving to Georgia, we wantyou to help us. And at that
(03:57):
moment, it was kind of like oh,you know, the heavens parted and
the angels began to sing. And itwas this huge aha moment. When
he said, I feel like I know youalready. So unfortunately, he
was moving to Atlanta and I hadjust moved to Savannah. So I had
to refer him out to someone elsebecause I moved five hours away
literally the week before, butnow I knew that it actually was
(04:19):
going to work. So I said, Okay,I'm in a new market yet again,
nothing to do. I will make onevideo a week, I'm going to
commit to six months, I willhave zero expectations. I'm not
even going to consider stoppinguntil the six month mark just so
that I can have some actual datato you know, make an informed
decision. Well, by six months, Iwas getting almost all of my
(04:41):
business from my YouTubechannel. It was kind of insane.
And after a year, I went to mybroker and said, I am so
insanely busy. I I don't evenknow what to do at this point. I
need help. What should I do? Andshe said I think it's time to
form a team. So it boggles mymind that one year after
relocating to a brand new citywhere I knew two people that
(05:02):
lived there, my mom and dad, andthey were not going to be
selling their house anytime soonthat I went from that to having
to expand because I had so manyinbound leads coming in that I
couldn't service them allmyself. And $0 of that came from
ad spend.
Genie Willett (05:18):
That's amazing.
You briefly touched on this, butcan you walk us through the
difference between leads thatyou buy on third party sites
versus leads that come inthrough your video content?
Karin Carr (05:28):
Oh, my gosh, I love that question so much. Because
back before I discoveredYouTube, I was running a ton of
Facebook ads. So I would runthese ads. And I would spend
anywhere from like $500 to$1,000 a month. And at the time,
that felt like a lot of money tome. And I would run these ads of
like, hey, get a free list ofall of the single storey homes
in Canton, Georgia. And I wouldget these people who would opt
(05:50):
in for the list. And boy, Icould not convert those people
into clients to save my life.
Now part of that was probably mypoor sales skills. But a lot of
it was that they couldn't theywere not ready, willing and
able, they were not creditworthy. They didn't have good
FICO scores, or they were just,you know, oh, that house looked
pretty. So I clicked on the ad,but they really didn't have any
motivation. So I felt like I wasjust flushing money down the
(06:13):
toilet. I was getting all ofthese people into my database,
who would not answer any of myemails, who gave me fake phone
numbers who did not want to talkto me. And they would never
convert, like, I could nurturethem for five years, but they
would never convert into aclient. But when I get the call
from someone that says, Oh, mygosh, I watched your YouTube
videos, they have already chosenyou. They don't even interview
(06:37):
any other agent most of thetime. In fact, the first good
solid lead I got after I movedto Savannah, it was a seller
lead. He had gone to my websiteand he filled out the How much
is your home worth page on mywebsite? So I called him and
said, Hey, I got this, this formyou thinking about selling your
house? And he said, Yes, I foundyour YouTube channel. I've
(06:57):
watched all of your videos wentto your form, your website
filled out the form. We'rethinking of selling our house
and moving back to Florida, allof our family is in Florida.
We're the only ones here inGeorgia, I think it's time we're
going to do. So I went over tohis house and I did my whole
song and dance. Right? I gave mywhole listing presentation. And
you know, I'm doing it on myiPad so I can show how tech
savvy I am. And you know,beautiful graphics and all of
(07:20):
the things and at the end, Isaid, Okay, so, you know, break
into me gently, who else am I upagainst? Who else are you
interviewing? And they said,Nobody, like we picked you. And
at that you could have heard apin drop because I was so
flabbergasted at that point, Imust have been in real real
estate. 12 years, maybe I'venever had that happen before. I
(07:43):
had literally never had a comelist me phone call. Unless it
was, you know, my sister's nextdoor neighbor. And it was a done
deal. I never had somebody justpick me off of the internet and
say, I want you to be the personespecially when we had not ever
met before we'd never met inperson we'd never spoken by
phone until he filled out thatform. And it was just the follow
(08:04):
up phone call. So then the nextphone call was like that, too.
It was another seller come listme. He was in the military. They
were PCSing to Fort Eustis. Wegot to sell our house fast. I
want to buy a house when I getthere. But I can't have two
mortgage payments. And you aremilitary. And so you get it and
you know, we want you. I saidWho else are you interviewing?
He said, Well, we've got threedifferent people that we are
(08:28):
interviewing. And I said, Okay,understood, like, I'm not going
to force you to make a decision.
I shook their hands, I got mycar, I was not even out of the
neighborhood. And he called meback and said, Oh, who are we
kidding? Can you just come backand we'll sign paperwork now.
And I laughed so hard when I gotthere. He's like, I felt like we
really should interview threedifferent people. But we don't
want to, we just want to pickyou. And that's the power of
(08:50):
video. Because when you are oncamera, and they see you and
they hear you, they are gettingto know your personality. If
they don't like you, they arenot going to call. But that's
fine. There's no rejection. It'snot as though they call you and
say, you know, Karin, I wasgoing to hire you to list my
house. But in the end, I justreally don't like you that much.
(09:11):
So I'm not going to like theydon't do that doesn't ever
happen. So if they don't callyou don't know that they didn't
call, there's no rejection. Allyou get are the calls where
they're like, oh my gosh, youwere amazing. I love you. It's a
great ego boost. Let me tellyou, when every person that
calls you feels like I'm doingthem this huge favor by agreeing
to take their business.
Reggie Nicolay (09:33):
What's incredible about that story is
you know, your videos areessentially nurturing these,
these prospects and you'vegained this celebrity status in
their eyes in a way where we allfeel like when we see somebody
that we've watched for a whileand and I know that feeling and
it's it's amazing. You'reactually just looking to talk
with them and connect and thenmaybe if you have an opening in
(09:54):
your schedule, you couldrepresent us, you know, what you
may know that's
Karin Carr (09:57):
Exactly how I've had people say like I'm not I don't
have a huge budget. I know, Iknow my sales not going to be
huge. But would you please takeme on as a client anyway, they
act as though, like me agreeingto give them these morsels of my
busy time is just the mostprecious thing in the world to
them. They never, they neverargue about commission, they're
(10:19):
not looking for somebody who'sjust gonna give them a rebate at
the closing, like that is nottheir primary concern. Their
primary concern is that I likeyou, I trust you, I feel safe, I
feel that you are competentenough to help me with this
transaction, and that we'regoing to have a good time doing
it. And that hopefully, I willbe able to make it a fun
transaction and not the moststressful thing that they've
(10:42):
ever gone through.
Reggie Nicolay (10:43):
You've done such a good job of painting, the
value of video marketing andyour real estate business. But
you know, there's some folksthat are sitting there on the
sidelines, they're peeking in,and they've got excuses. They
don't have enough time, or theyneed to get a haircut or they
need to, you know, buy some newtechnology because maybe their
cameras not the right one. Imean, what's what's your take on
(11:05):
that? when's the right time toget in? And, you know, any
advice for someone just tryingto get the first video created?
Karin Carr (11:12):
Right? The best time was 20 years ago, the second
best time is right now. So it'sthat old analogy of when's the
best time to plant a tree right?
20 years ago would have been thebest time to plant the tree. But
if you didn't think ahead to dothat, then today is the best
time. Listen, you're gonna stinkat the beginning, there is no
getting around it. I am, I havea friend who is big into Tik
Tok, she's trying to talk meinto doing Tik Tok videos, I am
(11:34):
terrified to post a Tik Tokvideo because that is not in my
wheelhouse at all. And I hearthat people are really mean on
Tik Tok, and they tear you apartin the comments. So me, who's
somebody who has filmed like 500videos in the past couple of
years, even I am nervous aboutdoing that. There is no way to
get over it, except to do it anddo it over and over and over
(11:57):
again until it's not scaryanymore. So you just have to
decide how important is this toyou? I will tell you that video
marketing is free. And it is thesingle most effective lead
generation strategy that I haveever tried in the 17 years that
I've been a licensed REALTOR®.
And it doesn't cost me anymoney. So does that sound
(12:20):
appealing to you? If so you haveto decide that it's worth being
uncomfortable. And it's worthtrying something that's scary,
because you will not die ofembarrassment. You will not die
of mortification and you willnot die if somebody I had
somebody in the comments on aYouTube video recently tell me
that I looked like the femaleversion of Eric Idle out which,
(12:42):
oh my god. And then I looked atthe video, I'm like, dang it,
they're kind of right. There waspicturing the old Monty Python
skits where he's dressed up likean old woman. And I'm like,
Well, I do have a long face. AndI'm pale. And I now have gray
hair. So I kind of see it. Andoriginally when I made videos,
if they had said something likethat, that totally would have
hurt my feelings so bad, itwould have been like, dang,
(13:05):
okay, where's the line, I'mgonna have to go console myself
with a big glass of red wine.
But now, after so many peopletelling me that they love my
videos, that the few people whosay they don't, I don't care,
it's fine. You know, I'm over.
Now you can have your opinion,you're wrong, clearly. But if
that's your opinion, that'sfine. Just don't watch me go
watch somebody else. So you haveto decide that it's worth it,
(13:28):
and then decide that yeah, it'sgoing to be very uncomfortable.
And I'm going to feel supervulnerable and awkward. And the
good news is it doesn't lastforever, because the more you do
it, the better you get. And thetechnology totally does not
matter. When I started Irecorded everything on my
iPhone, I think I had a six plusat the time, or my iPad, and
(13:51):
only because the screen waslarger. So if I had notes, I
could actually read the notesfrom six feet away without
having to put my glasses on. Souse your iPhone, your Samsung
Android, whatever you got, it'sgoing to be just fine. I would
say get a microphone doesn'thave to be a big fancy
microphone, it could be a $30microphone off of Amazon. If
(14:12):
you're going to record into yourcomputer with your webcam, you
just get one that plugs rightinto your computer with a USB
port. If you're going to recordwith your phone, you get one
that plugs into the iPhones jackor the headphone jack or
Bluetooth earbuds. It reallyreally helps to have an external
microphone with the camera likeall of the cameras are good now
(14:32):
they all shoot in 10 ADP, youdon't need 4k In fact, I would
say if you're you know my ageand older don't go with 4k
nobody see that that close 1080P will be just fine. And then
that's pretty much it. You'regoing to just talk to the camera
as though you were speaking toone person pick like your
(14:53):
neighbor down the street whosaid hey, can I pick your brain?
Let's go to Starbucks. I'mthinking about buying an
investment property. I've noidea what the heck I'm doing.
Do I really have to put 30%?
Down? Like, could I just takeyou out for coffee and ask you a
whole bunch of questions. Soyou're talking to that one
person who you know, and youknow very well, it's not going
to be scary to have thatconversation with them, like,
you know, this person andthey're not, they're not
(15:13):
grilling you to try to see ifyou're, they're going to trick
you with answers so that you getthem wrong, like they genuinely
want your help. There's nothingscary about that. Train yourself
to think of the camera as thatone person who just needs your
help. It's not, it's notanything to be scared of. And
then when you start uploadingthese videos, no one is going to
watch them, like you, if youhave a brand new YouTube
(15:38):
channel, no one's gonna seethem, they don't know that your
channel even exists yet. Andthat's fine, because this is
when you are learning. So Idon't really want a huge
audience watching me crash andburn. It is perfectly fine that
when I put these videos up,they're gonna get 10 views, 20
views, like on a good day,you're oh my gosh, I got 50
(15:58):
views on this video whathappened? I don't know what
happened. But you know, and theneventually, you get better and
better and better. And by thattime, the YouTube algorithm is
like, Okay, now people arestarting to like these videos,
they start to show them to morepotential viewers. By the time
your videos start to get found,you're 100 times better than you
were when you first started. Buttruly, the only way to get over
(16:21):
that initial hurdle, is to justdo it to just make yourself do
it and Promise yourself that itdoes not have to be anywhere
close to perfect. Like I heardMarie Forleo say once B- work,
it doesn't have to be an A plusa B- is just fine. Just get it
up there. It's good enough, goodenough to help somebody and then
(16:42):
move on and go make the nextone. And the faster you can do
that. So make 5, 10, 20 videos,the faster you can just get the
all those videos cranked out andput on your YouTube channel, the
sooner you will get over thatinitial hurdle. So now when I
sit down to edit videos, like Ido not care what my voice sounds
like, I don't even give it asecond thought. That's that's
(17:05):
what my voice sounds like. Itdoesn't bother me anymore. I
don't agonize over except I youknow, I did record a video the
other day and I had somethingstuck in my teeth and I didn't
know it until I sat down to Editwas like are you kidding me? It
looks like I had black beans forlunch. This was not cool. But
you it was not live. I get toedit the video so I can edit
(17:25):
that part out where nobody willsee it or I could just rerecord
it again, it will be totallyfine.
Genie Willett (17:33):
Okay, so now you've created your videos
consistently. You've got them onYouTube, and you're slowly
building a base of followers.
How do you turn this into asuccessful sales funnel? How do
you actually convert viewersinto clients?
Karin Carr (17:47):
I love that you said sales funnel, makes my little
nerdy marketers heartbeatfaster. It really is a funnel.
So here's the problem that Isee. Most real estate agents
think that it is commercial timewhen they make a video for
YouTube. It's like, "Hello, didI mention that I am a CRS and a
GRI and I have so manydesignations and I sell so many
(18:07):
houses. And I am really awesome.
But enough about me. What do youthink about me?" Like that's
what most people do on theirYouTube channels. And I don't
understand it, because I don'tenjoy watching commercials. In
fact, when I go to YouTube and acommercial starts to play, I
wait 5 4 3 2 1 And then I hitthe skip button so I don't have
to watch it. And that's not whyI'm there. Like I did not go to
(18:29):
YouTube and say, Gee, I wouldreally like to watch a whole
bunch of sales pitches. Nowthat's going to be a good time.
Like nobody wants that. But forsome reason. That's what
salespeople are real estateagents seem to think they think
that it is I've got toadvertise. I've got to promote
myself. Yes, but we can do it ina way that is not quite so
obnoxious. So instead, I thinkabout who am I trying to reach
(18:52):
with this video, when I createdmy channel, it was people who
are in the military who arecoming to Savannah to be
stationed at Hunter ArmyAirfield. So they are military.
They are moving here from out ofthe area. They don't know the
Savannah area very well at all.
And hopefully they're going tobe buyers. Maybe they've decided
I've been living on post all ofthis time. But now that I'm
(19:14):
getting to Savannah, it's reallyinexpensive to live there. We
could actually buy a house. Andone of my very first clients was
in the Coast Guard. He boughtnew construction for $192,000.
The guy thought he had just likewon the jackpot, right? $192,000
I forget what his mortgagepayment was going to be. It was
ridiculous. It was like $1,500 amonth. And I think his base
allowance for housing was morethan that. So basically, he was
(19:37):
getting to live in this housefor free every single month and
not have to pay for it. Sothat's who I was targeting with
my channel. Every video that Imake has to speak directly to
that person. So what wouldsomeone in the military who is
moving to Savannah need to knowI can talk about VA loans I can
talk about the funding fee I cantalk about what the seller can
pay for and what the buyer isnot allowed to pay for If I can
(20:00):
talk about the Can I buy a fixerupper? Can I buy an investment
property? Then I can talk about?
What's it like living inSavannah, I can talk about the
pros and cons of living inSavannah, I can talk about
things to do here and why it'ssuch a fun place and places you
can go on vacation that arewithin a two hour drive from
Savannah, I can talk aboutbuying and neighborhoods and
like anything. And the thingthat's really funny, this, I
(20:24):
totally just went off on atangent, but that very first
lead that I got was a seller whowas not in the military. The
second lead I got was also aseller he was in the military.
But the first two leads I gotwere not the people that I was
targeting with the channel. Andit didn't matter because the
more views those videos got, themore YouTube pushed it out to
other people as well. So I stillgot seller leads even though I
(20:47):
was making videos for buyers.
But I digress. So then I'mmaking these videos talking
specifically to that person. Andmy personal philosophy is just
the Gary Vee Jab, Jab, Jab,Right Hook, you gotta give,
give, give, give, give, givesome more, and then ask. So I
make the video, giving them allkinds of great information,
(21:11):
expecting absolutely nothing inreturn. And maybe every third
fourth fifth video, I would saysomething like, if you're
thinking about moving toSavannah, I have an awesome
relocation guide, click the linkbelow, go over to my website and
download it. And that sends theminto the funnel. So they go to
my website, they fill out thelanding page to get the
(21:31):
relocation guide, they get itdelivered to them, immediately
they go into my CRM, it starts awhole follow up nurture
campaign, I get an email thatsays Ding, ding, ding, you have
a new lead. And then I call themand say, Hey, Joe, I saw that
you downloaded my relocationguide. Are you thinking about
moving to Savannah, and thenthey have the oh my gosh, I
can't believe I'm talking to youa conversation. So it really
(21:52):
turns into not only leads, butreally, really good, qualified,
motivated leads. Sometimesthey're not ready to move for a
year or two, like I've had lotsof people say, I think we're
going to relocate there when weretire. And that's not for a
couple of years. But and then Ihave other people that are like,
I'm going to be there nextmonth. So we're doing something
(22:13):
right now. and everywhere inbetween. So they really turn
into amazing leads, but not ifyou're saying call me call me
Call me. Here's my phone number.
I'm gonna have my phone numberflashing on the screen. And
here's my logo, my brokeragelogo as well. Did I mention you
should call me oh, by the way, Ihave a house for sale that I
mentioned that I sell houses, Ihave houses for sale, let's
let's give you I'm selling thishouse, anybody want to buy this
(22:34):
house? And when I go on social,that's all I see. It's about the
listing, the listing the listingthe listing all of the time,
what if we stopped and weactually gave them some
information that they wanted.
And they didn't feel like wewere just trying to sell them
something all of the time, Ifeel like it, it makes them let
(22:56):
their guard down and lets theirwalls down. And they actually
become more receptive to whatyou are saying. So they don't
feel like you're a salesperson.
And then when they decide it'stime to pull the trigger. They
call you because you've shownyourself to be trustworthy and
not obnoxious.
Reggie Nicolay (23:13):
It's such good advice, you know, because,
again, education and you'reshowing your value you're giving
to get it makes a lot of sense.
I think the only thing as a newagent where I'm looking at this,
I might be a little fearful thatwhen I open up YouTube, I'm
competing with all of YouTube,and I really loved hearing your
take on it that you know, that'snot the case. When you start
looking at you know who you'retalking to your niche and your
(23:36):
local area. You're not actuallycompeting with as many people as
you think are you out there?
Karin Carr (23:43):
No, not at all. It's really interesting how the
YouTube algorithm works becausethey show you videos if I am the
viewer, they are showing mevideos that they think I will
like based on my previous watchhistory. And so I give this
analogy all the time. There is aguy that has a channel in
southern Utah he he's a towtruck guy, he pulls Jeeps out
(24:06):
when they go out to Moab to gorock hauling and they get stuck
in the cracks. He goes out hepulls the Jeep out my husband
watches this channel everysingle night and I'm like how
how many Jeeps do you need towatch get towed out of the
cracks before it's no longerentertaining because you watch
it literally every single nightwhen I go on to YouTube I will
never be serviced one of Mattoff roads recoveries video
(24:30):
because I don't watch that. Iwill be shown videos that I
watch I watched chicken or watchvideos about chickens raising
chickens in your backyard. Andyou know stop coloring your
hair, let your hair grow grayand how to deal with humidity
and better editing techniquesand you know social media
marketing and what is the whatare the interest rates doing
(24:52):
like it shows me videos that arerelevant to what I have searched
and what I have watched in theYouTube newsfeed based on my
previous watch history, so theonly people who will ever watch
your YouTube videos are peoplewho are interested in the topic.
And this is one of my favoritethings about YouTube. It's
(25:13):
really mind blowing when youthink about it. If you get 50
views on a video that was about,I don't know, the savannah
quarters gated neighborhood inpooler, Georgia, I get 50 views,
okay? 50 views is not a lot. Butall 50 views were from people
that were interested in Savannahquarters in polar Georgia. So
(25:34):
even if I got one phone callfrom that, that turned into a
client at a 50 views, those arenot bad off no right. Versus I'm
not I'm not competing witheverybody on YouTube, I am not
competing with Mr. Beast, I amnot competing with PewDiePie.
I'm not competing with the theguys that like run around
mansions shooting each otherwith Nerf guns that my 10 year
(25:55):
old son watches all the time.
I'm not up against thoseviewers. That's not what they're
looking for. They will never beshown one of my videos. But if
somebody types in anything to dowith Savannah or real estate,
you can be darn sure they'regonna see my videos.
Genie Willett (26:10):
You mentioned a few already. But let's circle
back to the top mistakes you seeagents making when incorporating
video into their marketingplans.
Karin Carr (26:19):
Well, one of the big mistakes we've already talked
about, and that was being waytoo salesy, so just don't don't
anything that you've been taughtto do, do the polar opposite on
YouTube. And it will probably bemore effective. It truly is. If
if you sound like you're comingacross with a sales pitch, they
will leave the video within thefirst 10 seconds and never watch
(26:40):
you again. So you're justdestroying any chances you had
of working with that person. Sodon't. The second thing is
pretty much along those samelines. And it is. Hey, everyone,
welcome back to my channel. Myname is Karin Carr. I'm a real,
I'm a real estate agent inSavannah, Georgia with real
broker and then today we'retalking about that. So I told
them that I was a REALTOR® andwho my brokerage was in the
(27:01):
first 10 seconds of the video, Iam convinced that what they hear
is, Hello, I am an annoyingsalesperson. And I'm now going
to give you a sales pitch forthe next 15 minutes, buckle up,
it's going to be fun. And theydon't want that so they leave
the video. So if we can stopdoing that, and instead start
the video with some sort ofcompelling hook something that
(27:24):
will grab them and keep themwanting to know more. So let's
say that your video was about isis it? Is it still a hot
seller's market? Or is it toolate because now the interest
rates have changed. And soyou're going to make a video
where you're talking aboutwhat's happening in your market.
(27:44):
And you could open your videoinstead of saying, Hey,
everyone, welcome to my channel.
I'm Karin, I'm a REALTOR®. Youcould say something like, are
you thinking about selling yourhouse in Savannah, and you are
worried because interest ratesare sky high? Yep, you should be
worried because things havechanged drastically, you need to
know what to do if you want toget your house sold in less than
six months. Let's do this. Andthen you talk about your things.
(28:05):
So you had to give themsomething that was like a little
bit controversial, a little bitsalacious, a little bit of like
scare tactics, because we knowthat people's are motivated by
going toward pleasure and awayfrom fear. And unfortunately,
the fear thing seems to work alittle bit better on YouTube. So
you say something scary at thebeginning of the video, they're
(28:27):
gonna click on it and watch it,then you give them the
information. So we don't want totrick them into clicking and
then talk about somethingtotally unrelated. We're going
to talk about exactly what wesaid in the beginning of the
video, so that they feel likeyou're giving them the accurate
information. And hopefully youare reassuring them that no, you
didn't wait too long. It's not aterrible time. But we do have to
(28:49):
do things differently, you'reprobably not going to get 75
offers in the first 48 hourslike we did last summer, things
are different. Here's what weneed to do to adjust, blah,
blah, blah. So you're justreally trying to be entertaining
on camera. And that is a skillthat comes with practice, we do
not come out of the womb, beinggreat at coming up with an
(29:12):
opening hook. Like it doesn'thappen that way it comes with
practice. And the more you doit, the better you will get and
you don't even it's it's noteven that you're coming up with
it off the top of your head,like I literally will make a
list of opening hooks. And I'llwrite down 15 of them. And then
I'll pick the one that I thinksounds the best and then that's
(29:32):
the one that I say in the video.
You don't have to come up withit off the top of your head.
You're like planning what you'regoing to say in this video.
Don't feel like it has to beperfect. They want you to be
real on camera. If you swallowor you cough or you stumble over
your lines, it's fine. You cankeep going you could take it out
(29:53):
if you wanted to in the editingprocess, but you could keep
going as well. Just don't Ah,you know, when you're doing a
live stream, people are comingon and you're like, hey, Carol,
hey, Joe, how's it going, you'rechit chatting with people that
are in the live stream. Unlessyou're going live. That's really
annoying. So don't use a freedon't use a live stream that you
(30:16):
did before. And like upload itto YouTube, because now I'm
watching it back, I'm not live.
And it's very easy to lose theirattention. I don't I don't need
to see all of the chitchat, justget to the point, please. And
then always have a really greatcall to action at the end of
your video. And for me, I likeit to be watched another video.
So I've just given you all ofthis information about why this
(30:37):
is still a great time to sellyour house. But do you know how
to come up with the list price?
Or are you just pulling that offof Zillow? No, this is how we
determine what your list priceshould be. Watch this video
next. And in that video, we'regoing to tell them how we come
up with the asking price foryour house. So you're giving
them like valuable piece of infoafter valuable piece of info
(31:00):
after valuable piece of info.
And then you say I want to knowwhat your home is worth go to my
website and fill out this form,I'll tell you exactly what it's
worth. So they feel like oh,this person was so helpful.
They're giving me all of thisgreat information. They're not
trying to shove anything down mythroat that I'm not ready to
buy. And then eventually theycall you. And when you ask them.
(31:22):
Did you call anybody else? Areyou interviewing anybody else?
They say no, just you.
Reggie Nicolay (31:29):
It's a dream.
Karin Carr (31:30):
It is really?
Reggie Nicolay (31:31):
Yeah, it is. I love this. And you mentioned a
type of video that I did want tocircle around a little bit live
video. And you also mentionedmarket updates in your last
answer. And so this is the nextquestion I because that RPR we
have introduced these new chartsand graphs. And as marketers
ourselves, Jeannie and I, we'vebeen thinking well, these are
bound foundational marketingcomponents for video, you know,
(31:54):
they talk about the type ofmarket or different roll ups for
neighborhoods maybe on like themedian list price or days on
market or change in volume, youknow, something like that. And
so we're just wondering, like,what's your take on real estate
market videos? I did see you hada live video with a group of
your teammates. I thought it wasa really fun format. There was
(32:16):
different context coming fromeverybody, you know, their ache,
but I mean, what's your overallthought on market update videos,
and I'm using data like Imentioned,
Karin Carr (32:26):
Let me start by saying if you know the DISC
profile, I am a high AI. Somarket updates to me are mind
numbingly boring, I do not lovedoing them. And I put them off
for a very, very long time.
Unfortunately, sellers lovemarket updates. But you got to
figure out how to make itinteresting. They don't
necessarily know all of thejargon and the acronyms that
(32:47):
we're using on a daily basis.
And I see a lot of people thatwill make a market update. And
they're saying, you know howmany houses sold, how many went
pending? How many are active onthe market, but they don't say
what that was compared to themonth before. So is that good?
Is that bad? I don't know, Idon't really have any context. I
(33:09):
don't know what the marketabsorption rate is as the
consumer. So if you're gonnagive them the data, I like to
give it to them. So that I'mtelling them why it's relevant
for them. So if I say, you know,last summer, the days on market
was 17 days, like literally, wewould put the house on the
market, we got a million offerson it went under contract, and
(33:30):
then it closed in no time. Nowour days on market is 60 days,
that is a huge difference. Whatdoes that mean for you? Well, if
you are the buyer, it means thisif you are the seller, it means
this. So I love to give themthat data. And if we've got all
of those charts and graphs fromRPR that we can put up on the
screen, give the peoplesomething to look at while
(33:51):
you're explaining what it is.
That's wonderful because theydon't just want to look at my
face talking for 15 minutesstraight and give them some
diagrams and charts and piecharts and all of that stuff to
look at that makes your videomuch more entertaining, and
watchable. They like that. But Ialso say just don't go too crazy
with like the stats, becauseyou're going to lose all of the
(34:13):
people that are like me that arethe highest, you know, we want
to like, talk about the feelingand the emotions and stuff like
that. And if you go deep downthe rabbit hole of the stats,
you're going to lose me so Itried to just think of a happy
medium, how can I appeal to asmany people as possible with the
information that I'm givingthem, but I love that idea of
(34:33):
just you don't have to go to theMLS and pull all of these this
data, just go to RPR and usetheirs instead. And by the way,
they're going to look 10 timesbetter than anything I could
make on Canva. So I'll just usethat instead. And then as far as
live streams live streams aregreat if you already have a
fairly large audience. If youdon't, I feel like it's not
(34:56):
really beneficial. At the verybeginning, so let's say I create
my new YouTube channel. It'sbrand new. I have five
subscribers. And it's mostlylike my mom and my husband and
my cousin that lives in anotherstate. And a few people from the
office, I don't have a hugefollowing. If I go live, no
one's really going to see itexcept the five people that were
(35:18):
already subscribed to thechannel, and even then they're
not all going to watch it. Soyou're going live. And you can
see a big fat zero in the upperleft hand corner. And it's
really demoralizing for me to belive and be like, nobody is
watching. This is soembarrassing, and then it's hard
to keep your energy up and actlike you're talking to people
(35:40):
when you know that nobody isthere. So once you get a fairly
large YouTube channel, then it'sa great time to start live
streaming, but I wouldn't do it.
If your channel is brand new. Iwould go live on the other
channels, the other platformswhere you already have a fairly
good audience. I hear that goinglive on Tik Tok is going to be
(36:00):
like the next big thing becausenot many people are doing it
yet. So if you're already on TikTok, go live over there. Go Live
on Facebook Live on Instagram. Iwouldn't worry too much about
YouTube Live though until youhave a larger audience. That's
just my personal take on it. Itadvice.
Genie Willett (36:16):
This has all been so great. I know I already want
to dig deeper into making videocontent. For those agents
looking for some more guidanceon expanding their business with
video. Should they start withyour book YouTube for real
estate agents?
Karin Carr (36:29):
Yes, that would be wonderful. Please do it is on
Amazon or it is in the theNational Association of
REALTORS® store in thebookshelf. It's called YouTube
for real estate agents learn howto get free real estate leads
and never cold call again. Youcan follow me on my YouTube
channel. It'syoutube.com/karincarr. And it's
(36:50):
all just tips for agents thatwant to use video this way. Feel
free to watch as many of thoseas you need. I do challenges
periodically online i i have acoaching program like I love to
talk about this stuff. So if youneed more help just I'd say
start with my YouTube channel.
That's probably the easiestplace to start.
Reggie Nicolay (37:12):
Yeah, there is a wealth of information on that
channel. I could have a lot offun digging through all that
content. And I loved about thebook all the assignments and the
way you took it. It's reallyit's like the ABCs to getting
started. So very helpful. Foranyone looking to get some
traction with video. We can'tthank you enough for being our
guest on Decoding Real Estatethis month and we hope to have
(37:34):
more conversations with you inthe future. But for now, thank
you for giving our listenerstips on how to get started with
video in their marketing.
Karin Carr (37:43):
My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. This
is great.
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